the owl and the panther
06/20/2008 04:50 a.m.
You know how a song sometimes sticks in your head, and just won't leave? This happened to me earlier today, except instead of a song it was a poem about an owl and a panther that I learned when I was a kid. It goes:

"As I walked through the garden
I marked with one eye
How the owl and the panther
Were sharing a pie.

The panther had pie crust
And gravy and meat
While the owl got the plate
As his share of the treat.

When the banquet was finished,
The owl, as a boon,
Was kindly permitted
To pocket the spoon.

The panther received
Knife and fork with a growl,
And finished his supper
by..."

-I'm certain I've misremembered some of the word order in some way, but it's just my kind of thing, even now - especially with its macabre and cynical finish, which shows up in my own work from time to time - and I adored the un-ending of it. What's bugging me now is that I can't remember who wrote it.

Anybody know?