THE NATURE-FAKIR’S DREAM

Out of the forest depth there came

   A thing of monstrous size;

It had no tail, it had no legs

   It had no ears or eyes.

It had no teeth, it had no mouth,

   It had no cheek or nose;

It had no fins with which to swim,

   It had no feet or toes.

It was devoid of trunk or head,

   ‘Twas neither straight nor crooked;

It neither walked nor crept nor crawled,

   And hideous it looked.

It had no wings with which to fly,

   No lungs with which to roar;

And yet it plunged along the ground,

   Straight to the fakir’s door.

It seized him in its awful grasp

   And opened wide its jaws;

It tossed him high into the air,

   And slashed him with its paws.

It flung him miles and miles through space,

   And caught him at a bound;

Then swallowed him and disappeared

   Ten miles beneath the ground.

           Envoy

Now all good story tellers please

   Take warning from this verse;

If you can’t tell them as they are

   Don’t make them any worse.

                           JOE CONE

Typed version

c. Dec. 20. 1908

Pub. N.Y. Herald

               (Handwritten version: May 13, 1908)