We Regret to State

Where now is the hunter, the greatest and best,

     The one who would never acknowledge defeat;

The bravest who ever came out of the west,

     And punctured the jungle’s most inner retreat?

O, where is the man with the unerring aim,

     With the keen eagle eye and the nerve of iron?

Down, down he has gone, the toboggan of fame,

     For Kermit, young Kermit has bagged the big lion.

c. June 22, ‘09

(Kermit Roosevelt on safari with his father, Theodore Roosevelt.)