A Loyal Defender – A Riddle

Picture courtesy of Google.com

We are not unique, but still we’re a sight

We are beautiful and widely spread

Some like us well, some call us pests

We’re loud, with gray clothes and a black head.

**

We have to stick together, to keep us safe

We’re defensive, rude, and possessive too.

There are predators all over us

Old ones, known ones and a few new ones too.

**

We’re in danger, every time, every day

Coyotes, bears, foxes, dogs, they all can kill

Birds of prey, crows, badgers are danger

But we’re defensive, and holding on, still.

**

We are monogamous, which simply means for you

We mate for life, once we found our match.

We stay together all our life,

Convinced we’ll never find a better catch.

**

We share our life and do things together

From traveling to building nests

We’re carrying all our burdens as a couple

Including eggs, fleas and other pests.

**

Our babies can be numerous,

They have been counted, up to sometimes nine.

But an average of five, is considered normal

And to us, that’s good, and we’ll be fine.

**

We travel in unexpected heights, you can guess?

Normal is up in the air, at 3200 feet.

We fly in formation, forming a letter

And the V isn’t for victory, or mainly to greet.

**

We can be found all over Eurasia, the Americas

And further North, as our name should tell.

We can find our way through thousands of miles

Through sunshine, heaven, and sometimes Hell.

**

It is horrible that we are not only prey for mammals

We’re also demanded for human food.

No matter what, humans are dangerous

And they don’t contribute to our good mood.

**

They have been known to threaten us and our loved ones

They clear out our nests, kick us and shy us away

They have been known to run us over on purpose

Hoping we’d end up on their serving tray.

**

By now you should have found out who we are

Despite calling us pests, for our droppings and fleas

Still, you love to see our nests and the babies

And yes… we are called: Canada Geese.

*****

(Copyright, Aurora Jean Alexander, April 2023)

Canada Goose – Picture courtesy of Google.com

Time For Spring

Picture courtesy of Google.com

I don’t know how you feel today

End of March and still it’s cold

It’s supposed to be spring, but

my feet are freezing, it’s getting old.

**

It’s been snowing just yesterday

In huge white romantic flakes

As much as I love the cold fluid

I want warm now, and don’t know what it takes.

**

I want the trees in full bloom, and bushes too

I want flowers in colors all over the place.

I want romance in the air and smiles around me

I want sunshine and warmth all over my face.

**

I want to feel the romance, in others and me

I want my heart to show everything that collected last year

I’d like to smile and to kiss, I want a hug and some more

I want to show I’m in love without restrictions and fear.

**

Spring is the perfect time for all that

Don’t tell me you don’t want experience it too.

We all want to shake of the winter’s deep sleep

And want to sign and dance, and step out of the blue.

**

It’s time the world awakes, and provides all of us

With sunshine, grass, some color and fresh air

It’s time that happens rather soon

I don’t know how I’ll survive, I swear.

**

Bear with me for a few more weeks

Until April lived its way through time

Maybe by then we can meet a new season

Spring at its best – spring at its prime.

*****

(Copyright, March 2023 Aurora Jean Alexander)

Flower background. Free public domain CC0 image.

A Sporty Happy Friend – A Riddle

Most of us just look the same

Not much variation here at all.

We are pretty much the same color

And we are the opposite of small.

**

We live in the warmest spot on our Earth

And we need water to survive

But during the night we will go grazing

We herbivores need plants to thrive

**

During the day we refuse to move much

And just lay around, lazy and fat

But don’t underestimate us, we’ll outrun you

And will kill you then – and that is that.

**

Despite us looking lazy and sleepy

We are more dangerous than you might think

Stay out of our sight or you’ll be sorry

You’d be dead before you blink.

**

No matter how innocent and tired we look

We are no animals to pet

We want to be completely left alone

Remember that, or you’ll regret.

**

We can swim and we can dive

Our ears are big, and so’s the mouth

We are quite unique among the animals

And we are endangered by the drouth.

**

There is no other species in our family

When we mate we fight to kill

One of our males is quite the ‘Casanova’

With up to thirty females at his will.

**

We’re big and round, and we got no fur

Our skin is hairless and mostly gray.

We live in rivers, ponds and swamps

Give us water, and there we’ll stay.

**

We are the best example that

Exercise and eating greens

Does not work to lose some weight

We think it’s anchored in the genes.

**

I think you have guessed who we are by now

A very special animal sort

Call us a big gray ‘Hippopotamus’

Or simply ‘Hippo’ to make it short.

*****

(Copyright: Aurora Jean Alexander, February 2023)

Picture courtesy of the San Diego Zoo website

Prepare For Winter 2022

Take out the scarf, put on the hat

We’re going into fall

The seasons change and that is that

It’s time for gloves and shawl.

**

The leaves have changed, they all fall down

To the frosty ground

From yellow, red and dusty brown

And they don’t make any sound.

**

The grass is damp, the air is cool

fog crawls up in sight.

We’re wearing knitted warming wool

Over are short sleeves and light.

**

The darkness creeps quite early now

into every day

we expect frost and cool and vow

we’ll move in warmer lands to stay.

**

Winter walks into our lands

With big expansive strides

the cold bites softly our hands

when snow covers, protects and hides.

**

These are the last of autumn’s days

Enjoy the warming sun

Soon, nature freezes, and it stays

Until new buds in spring bring joy and fun.

*****

(Copyright Aurora Jean Alexander, November 2022)

Picture courtesy of Google.com

A Small Dangerous Friend – A Riddle

We are small and we are feared

We don’t know exactly why…

But knowing the world without all of us

Would soon be prone to die.

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We are a female society

Our males are there for play

They’re only used at certain times

And then they pass away.

**

We are working, flying, every day

Collecting what we need.

We’re protecting our home as guards

Every one of us does her deed.

**

We fly close and far, for what we collect

We clean and raise our kids

We fly out, collect, and transport our fuel

on our hind legs with sense and wits.

**

We communicate to let us know

Where danger is and not

And we use our wings to cool our home

When it’s humid out and hot.

**

Our work helps the earth and spread pollen

Of trees, and flowers too.

You better take good care of us

And honor us, and woo.

**

We wear a hairy top and a striped back

Transparent wings, can you see?

And as you might have guessed by now

Each one of us is a honey bee!

*****

(Copyright, Aurora Jean Alexander, September 2022)

Picture courtesy of Google.com

Hello, Mr. Vegetarian! – A Riddle

There are two of us, if you want to compare

You can’t tell the difference, even if you stare.

One of us is bigger, but you won’t see it live

Since we never are together, even if you strive.

**

The only way you could tell is the way we talk

Otherwise, we are the same, when we eat and sit and walk.

Maybe one of us is slightly bigger, but that is hard to tell

Only one thing is absolutely clear, we all are pretty swell.

**

We only live of plants, herbivores we’re called

We normally are calm, unless we’re badly galled.

We spend the days with family, we eat, we sit, we sleep

And when there’s something happening, we can cry and weep.

**

We are plucking flowers, we pay court to our girls

We give them pets and kisses, because we can’t give pearls.

We use tools to help us get to meals

We have two legs, and two arms, but our ladies wear no heels.

**

We all live on one continent, in warmth and sun we thrive

Some of us grow in the swamps by the desert, that is where we drive.

The others live higher in the mountains, still warm and nice

We wouldn’t change it where we live, for no treat and for no price.

**

We look peaceful and also lazy, but hey, make no mistake!

To protect our loved ones, we fight, we kill, we break!

We’re strong, and big, and underestimated on the first glance

But threaten us and our families, no man can stand a chance.

**

We’re nearly extinct, our kind is endangered, which is sad

We’re worth being saved, believe me, without us the world goes bad.

The Earth is cruel, a place of miracles, currently our dying, it is stalled.

Who are we? Yes, you are right, Gorillas we are called.

*****

(Copyright, August 2022 – Aurora Jean Alexander)

Picture courtesy of Wikipedia.com

An Empty Shell

There are times when I feel hollow

When times drags out the shallow days

The sun, it shines, provides the warmth

That shows the normal summer ways.

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Surrounded am I, by furry companions

And people in whose house I live.

I do, what I can, not to be a burden

But I don’t know how much I still can give.

**

I’m feeling blue, and worse by the hour

I feel forgotten, like I don’t matter at all.

No work, nobody who gives me a chance

To prove my worth – I feel useless and small.

**

There’s one person in this world who fills my life

With warmth, with smiles, and with some joy

But even he, goes forward and back, undecided

I feel hurt and humiliated, like a toy.

**

All I need is some success, a chance, some energy

Make me smile, talk to me, and make me feel alive

Currently, I feel alone, in a huge building, my thoughts an echo

Don’t leave me here with only myself – I need to thrive!

**

Maybe I just wither, unloved, undesired, forgotten and alone

If I just disappear, nobody would care if I slowly fade.

Leave the sunlight, go into darkness, enjoy the moon.

go into the night, accompanied by only shade.

**

Maybe it’s not the non-chances, or sadness that are killing

Maybe it’s not neglect, or sadness that trigger fears

Maybe it’s more, maybe it’s pain, hurt and loneliness

That make me drown in an ocean of tears….

*****

(Copyright, Aurora Jean Alexander, July 2022)

Picture courtesy of Google.com

A Smiling Acquaintance – A Riddle Poem

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I live in the Americas, in Central and the South

I am a happy mammal, with a constant smile upon my mouth.

There are two families of my species, named after our feet

And also we are different, in what we hunt and eat.

**

Eleven thousand years ago, a few of us were living on the ground

The size of elephants we were weighed in tons, and not with pound…

But the arrival of humans made us easy targets, eaten and extinct

What stayed was our mini-version, the one that smiled and blinked.

**

Also, we are easy target, that means we moved us to the trees

Where we do all, eat and sleep, and slowly move, breed and pair and sneeze.

We don’t have much energy, we don’t do well with others too

Normally, we all are loners, unless we are playing peek-a-boo.

**

We haven’t much developed lately, we stay frozen in our form

We smile, we eat, and we move slowly, to us that is the given norm.

Once a week we might come down from our favorite living tree

Fertilize the soil below it, before climbing up again to be.

**

Our fur is brown, sometimes beige, always straight, and never curled.

We are breeding a very special, unique moth within the insect world.

Our name comes from our movement, sluggish, lazy, very slow.

The name is program, you might guess, we are a ‘sloth’, that is to know.

*****

(Copyright, Aurora Jean Alexander, April 2022)

Picture courtesy of Google.com

Spring Is In The Air

This one here, it is for Lisa

And she knows I’m teasing her

I’m glad you finally woke up

After winter went out in a blur.

**

The past weeks when it was colder,

you were tired and also sad.

But when the sun came out today

I almost thought you had gone mad.

**

Suddenly you turn from a grumpy,

tired lady, within only a short whirl,

in a colorfully dressed and beaming

almost dancing teenage-girl.

**

The outside world got more attractive

And I can see, you’re breathing life!

Go on like this, dear friend ‘in crime’

And soon enough you’ll be a wife!

**

But joke aside, it does get warmer,

We all should laugh more, and should smile.

It’s spring time, a very special season,

To feel refreshed, and show some style.

**

The world awakens, first blossoms grow

Birds are singing, happiness we can find

All over the place, so let’s agree,

We love to leave the cold behind.

*****

(Copyright: Aurora Jean Alexander, March 2022)

Picture courtesy of Pixabay

A One Of A Kind Spy – A Riddle

I’m considered beautiful, and also shy

I can be hidden, still watch you, like a spy.

My eyes are big, my features strong

I’m still not predator, don’t go wrong!

**

I am very fast, I won’t pry

But be aware, I cannot fly.

Just when I’m threatened, then I go

But far too often, it’s useless, though.

**

I’m useful to nature, and still I’m prey

Wolf, bear, cougar, what should I say?

They all look at me like food

That fills the belly of all their brood.

**

You can find me all over the world in different size

My life can be peaceful, but that comes with a prize.

I’m not protected like so many these days…

And that’s why I wander on different ways.

**

My babies are tiny, and should you find one on your lawn

Please, don’t feed them, they are my spawn.

They’re cute, I know, but if you intrude

I’ll leave alone, and they’ll be screwed.

**

I’m sure in the meantime you have an idea about me

Well hidden, beautiful, shy and I love to be free.

I would say, by now it should be clear

It’s no secret, I am called, a deer.

*****

(Copyright Aurora Jean Alexander, February 2, 2022)

Picture courtesy of Google.com