The Bantom Cock

It was a grand upstanding bantam cock, So brisk and stiff and spry, With springy step and jaunty plume And a purposeful look in his eye, In his little black blinking eye, he had. I took him to the coop and introduced him To my seventeen wide-eyed hens. He tupped and he tupped as a hero tups And he bowed from the waist to them all, and then He upped and he tupped 'em all again, he did. And then upon the peace of me ducks and me geese He rudely did intrude. With glazed emyes and open mouths They bore it all with fortitude And a little bit of gratitude, they did. He jumped my giggling guinea fowl And forced his attentions upon My twenty hysterical turkeys and A visiting migrant swan. But the bantam thundered on, he did. He ravished my fan-tailed pigeons and Me lily-white columbines, And while I was locking up the budgerigar He jumped my parrot from behind; She was sitting on me shoulder at the time. And all of a sudden with a gasp and a gulp He clapped his hands to his head, EM Fell flat on his back with his toes in the air. My bantam cock lay dead And the vultures circled overhead, they did. What a champion brute; what a noble cock; What a way to live and to die. I was diggin' him a grave to save his bones From the hungry buzzards in the sky When the bantam opened up a sly little eye. He gave me a grin and a terrible wink The way that roosters do. He said, 'You see them big daft buggers up there? They'll be down in a minute or two; They'll be down in a minute or two.'