When

Do Hippos

Play?

By the African river, know as the Nile

The sun fell away and it rested a while

 

The rhinos had braved all the smoldering heat

They lay down to sleep as they wiped off their feet

The elephants marched to their elephant beds

And gently they rested their elephant heads

 

The hippos went bathing in cool, shallow pools

Thinking the rhinos and elephants fools

Slowly the hippos sank into the river

The water so cold that it gave them a shiver

 

(Hippos can't swim, like the pelicans think

They also can't float, they could easily sink)

Underwater, they fell to the soft river bed

On darkish green plants with a smidgen of red

 

They strolled on the bottom, then bounced up for air

They did it for hours, without any care

The fish followed closely, and wove in an out

Under their belly, and up to their snout

 

Each of the hippos came up to the shore

To feed on the grass by the river once more

 

They dried off their bodies by shaking and stomping

And took bites of grass, chewing and chomping

With night fading fast, they were full from the feast

The sun returned back, rising up form the east

The hippos crept off to collapse for the day

While rhinos and elephants got up to play

Enjoying the warmth of the sun and its light

Never knowing the story of hippos at night