"Carol the ferret with her duck" - not the original photo, this one a composite by Warren Mars
I found my mother a birthday card of a ferret riding a wooden duck on wheels, I don't know why. So then I was inspired to invent this poem to go with it which I printed inside.
Although all in anapaestic tetrameter, the one beat pauses at the end of the 1st and 3rd lines are filled with syllables in the 2nd and 3rd stanzas. This provides a sense of greater urgency as the action hots up. The final stanza restores the original relaxed rhythm as is appropriate.
There once was a ferret named Carol,
That rode into town on a duck.
Dressed up in her furry apparel,
To the tailor's, to let out a tuck.
While she was inside, her mount was espied,
A-leading the children around.
"Take me for a ride!", the little ones cried,
To the bright yellow playmate they'd found.
With them all on it's back, the duck gave a quack,
And rolled down the hill to the lake.
But a young man named Jack, pulled it up with a whack,
And prevented a ghastly mistake.
She was told by the tailor named Darryl,
"You don't know the half of your luck.
We've put your duck in a barrel,
To keep it from running amuck."
Warren Mars - September 2004