A F Harrold

Jim & The Lion: A Cautionary Tale

Boys who chose to visit zoos
should tie the laces of their shoes
or if one’s handy find a grown-up
to ensure their shoes are neatly sewn up

for flapping laces, it has been said,
can lead to children being dead.
Take for instance little Jim
it was loose laces that did for him.

In the zoo he yelled and ran around
excited by all the things he’d found:
wolves and bears and snakes and rats
and leopards, tigers and other cats

of a large and toothy look
that Jim had read about in his book.
He ran toward the lion’s pen,
his shoelace flapped, he tripped and then

he flew face first towards the cage
with a shout not calm and sage
and with a pop his head slid through
the cage’s bars and stuck like glue.

His parents tugged at Jimmy’s feet
but each tug they tugged met with defeat.
His ears were blocking his retreat
and so it was Jim became meat.

For the noise Jim made, all his crying,
had woken up the sleeping lion
who slowly walked up to the lad,
then looked up at Jim’s mum and dad.

The lion saw how Jim was stuck
between the bars by rotten luck.
Those two big ears, they were the problem
and so the lion started gobbling.

But a lion’s not a tidy eater,
as eaters go you’re probably neater,
but a lion always eats the lot
and never leaves any of what he’s got.

Jim’s parents couldn’t blame the lion
for eating Jim, they were always trying
to teach the boy in many places
not to run with undone laces.