[1484] The Wombat

Guest poem sent in by Wombat <mortal.wombat@>

The wombat lives across the seas,
Among the far Antipodes.
He may exist on nuts and berries,
Or then again, on missionaries;
His distant habitat precludes
Conclusive knowledge of his moods,
But I would not engage the wombat
In any form of mortal combat.

	-- Ogden Nash

    Wombats have a bad press on the internet. Among the geek community we
are known merely as an acronym - a "Waste Of Money, Brains And Time". Only
you can redress the balance by including for the first time in your mailing
list one of the world's classic poems, Ogden Nash's 'Wombat'. I note that
you have not had a silly poem for some time, so this should just about fit
the bill.

Wombat

[Martin adds]

Is it just me, or is there something intrinsically funny about the word
'wombat'?


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From: "Ian Baillieu" <ianbaill@>

Presumably your subscribers know that wombats are
ground-dwelling, burrowing marsupials native to Australia.
They can grow as large as a fair sized pig.  They may look
cuddly, but are hard-bodied and heavy, and have wiry-tough
fur and strong claws for digging.  Though not aggressive,
they can be self-absorbed and determined, and capable of
nipping the feet of anyone who stands in their way.

I was told once that some 19th century writer in Britain
made good money concocting stories about having travelled in
Australia, without ever having been there.  He was caught
out when he described 'a flight of wombats rising in the
dusk'.

From: "John Wright" <johnwright26@>

Yes, but do they eat missionaries?

It's a shame that more contemporary poets won't write simple humor.
They might sell a few more copies of the journals and it would save them
the trouble of encoding presumably important subject matter in nearly
incomprehensible fragments.

This is a simple, pleasant poem written in language as upright as prose.
 I can always use more like these.  I'm not especially familiar with
Nash, but I'll be shortly off to learn.

John