How the crocodile lost it's teeth

How the crocodile lost its teeth

And ended up all smily on Jupiter

In the swamps of Wardle, close to the water’s edge

Lived a slimy croc, a Mamma, who hated eating veg

She liked to eat soft bunnies, and sometimes poodles too

But most of all, especially, she liked fresh duckling stew

Now Mamma Croc laid lots of eggs in a nest quite vast (or big)

She was too lazy to get down to it and so she forgot to dig

The eggs lay high on a mound of bones, all oval and quite white

And Mama Croc would lie quite close to keep them in her sight

The croc-lings hatched out one by one, and ate each other up

Except for the second egg that broke and fell out of the nesting cup

The small green child rolled down the hill and ended in a tree

While nestlings four and five gnashed and munched on number three 

Now CrocLing Two was very small, but courageous as we see

And so he decided to explore the world and leave his safe, nice tree

He wandered the world all round about, but always wondered why

When he turned up the birds would shout and ducklings tried to fly

CrocLing often spent his nights staring at the stars and sky

And wondered why on earth he was stuck in swamps (and not on mountains high)

And as he grew his teeth did too, and so his toothy grin

Would scare the animals he met, and never entice them in

Eventually CrocLing found himself down near the sea

He’d splash in pools and watch the people flee

Occasionally he’d nick a board and surf upon a wave

And people would ooh and ahh and point, but none were very brave.

One day CrocLing came upon a new and wondrous sight

With boosters gently steaming, the rocket tall and white

The crocodile remembered his dreams of galaxies, stars and space

And hurried up the ladders with great crocodile-climbing grace

The rocket blasted off into deep and dodgy and dark quite outer space

With CrocLing hanging on with his eyes squeezed into his face

Round the moon, then Pluto and extremely close to Mars

The reptile had his eyes so tightly shut he still could see the stars 

Eventually, with boosters fallen and all jet fuel long, long gone

CrocLing cracked an eyelid and heard the stars’ wild song

He marvelled at the colours and the beauty of his ride

And saw a planet looming large, with several moons beside

Now CrocLing couldn’t really read, but he had tried to learn to spell

And J-U-N-O was a word that really didn’t go down well

It was not a plant or animal, or even a rock or tree

Juno was a spacecraft aiming to reach Jupiter on July 3 

CrocLing’s weight slowed Juno down and it arrived one whole day late

And entered Jupiter’s orbit, which would determine CrocLing’s fate

For as they hit the atmosphere, the shaking bounced so hard

That CrocLing’s teeth all shook loose (just like floppy lard)

And wailing to himself, that great crocodile fell from space

And left his teeth to orbit Jupiter at a fast and furious pace

Juno orbited round and round, and took pics of the big red storm

But didn’t snap poor CrocLing as he fell with reptilian form

Crash! Bash! Waves of atoms flew up into the sky

While CrocLing sent up shrieks of “oh me, oh poor my!”

And he flumped with a wallowing shush

Right in the middle of the red storm slush

Now dear reader, when you look up to the skies

You know the truth of why Jupiter’s storms collide

And we hope hope Juno makes it through

A storm of croc teeth that circle Jupiter too

And, if, perchance, you might actually land

You’ll find a CrocLing with a smile more bland

For the impact of the crocodile’s flight through the stars

Has left him mumbling with no teeth and just smily “Arrrr’s”.

(Kind thanks to the fabulous artists whose watercolour pictures I have borrowed).