Fable Verse: Fox & the Crow

The Fox and the Crow 
    (after Aesop) 
  
A coal-black crow sits in a tree, 
A morsel of cheese in his beak has he. 
A fox slinks by as sly as you please, 
And cunningly plots how to get the cheese. 
  
“Oh how I admire your feathers so spry, 
The sheen of your tail and the glint of your eye, 
The elegant curve of your beak sharp and long - 
But would I could hear your sweet voice raised in song!” 
  
At this the crow’s flattered and quite taken in; 
To impress the fox further he will now begin. 
He throws back his head, and rasping and raw,
He utters a raucous, cacophonous “Caw!” 
  
With beak all agape, the cheese tumbles out, 
The fox snaps it up in his long pointed snout. 
“Sing, Crow, your vanity, long as you please. 
You keep your song, and I’ll have the cheese!”

  Paul King