19/09/2026
HERE LIES
YOU
& I
_______________MORNING
8. GRINDING ORGANS
At the Chimelong circus...
Here come the even-toed ungulates!
Third act into the ring
Hooray!
Two of them…
Baby hippos
Small adult hippos
Or perhaps more correctly…
Pygmy hippos
(Let’s hope so
Let’s hope they aren’t baby hippos eh?)
Jogging out from behind a fancy velvet curtain
Bedecked in purple silks
Their flabby folds jigger-jagger as they run
Upon their backs…
Their jockeys
Marmoset (or some such) monkeys
Standing and balancing effortlessly holding long reins
They pant-hoot at the cheering crowd
Pigtailed Chinese girls in pink fur-lined quilted coats
Squeal with delight in their fathers’ arms
The hippos canter-waddle to the farthest extremities of the ring
Saliva slobbering in thick unbreakable strands
The couple from Seattle are here on honeymoon
Their great Sino-adventure
They want desperately to applaud such a sight as this
Yet political correctness disbars them
This is so wrong
So cruel
Terrible
Agrees the recent bride
God bless those poor poor animals
The hippos are actually brothers
Twins
(It’s rare for pygmy hippos to have multiple births)
They were singled out in the swamp at an early age
These boys are different
Destined for greatness
Soon they’ll be free of Liberia
That was the sort of muttering from the herd’s most senior hippos back then
And sure enough…
One day the poachers came
Killed the elders for their delicious meat
(Pygmy hippos’ teeth are worthless)
However they thought better of eating the boys
Instead they saw dollar signs
Before too long they were smuggled out in a crate
And now…
Here they are!
The superstars the stars predicted
If the pygmy hippos back home could only see the success they’ve become
(Any of them that remain alive that is)
Our own trailer
All the food we can eat
Planning to live to a grand old age
Not a leopard or a logger in sight
New friends
The monkeys
Who’d have thought?
They tease us a bit
But generally they are nice enough
And every night we are part of a big extravaganza
Where we have to run around racing and playing with
the monkeys (We’re keeping quite fit actually)
Also…(and we know you won’t believe this)
People pay to see us!
The newly weds from Seattle have no idea what stars these four toed duo are
Back in the festering heat of their homeland
Next up...
Watch the kangaroo box the s**t out of a human clown
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