He does not think himself so odd,
Eyes lined with Egyptian kohl,
A glossy, chubby, waddling plod
Fur dense as fecund soil.

A chimeric man with beaver's tail,
And cat-like prowl, all stolen.
His lovely wife shouldn’t lay eggs,
Mammal stomachs should grow swollen.

He bartered venom from a snake,
It cost him chomping teeth,
Darwin marveled from above,
When he traded fangs for a beak.

And if that wasn’t weird enough,
He’s won some flippers too,
To splash beside his burrow
Under eucalyptus leaves of blue.

He wanders like a puzzled pigeon
Pecking crawdads in the stream,
And he only deigns to see himself
In fellow eye’s blackish gleam.

What maniac, god, or force of nature,
Brought this conglomerate to life?
A child in disturbed imagination,
Or crazed carver with her knife?

A missing link, this platy-beast
May cause some men to scream,
But he just smiles and slinks away,
That wacky monotreme.