Royal Duty In The Land of The Rabbit King

 

“Ping! Ping! Ping!”

Exclaimed the rabbit king.

“We have a new orphan coming in in in.

Cubby Cubby Cubby be his name.”

 

“Hear me now Ping Ping Ping!”

Echoed Queen Kinyata

After she’d quaffed a draught

Of steaming Kiwi-Jasmine tea.

Be nice to your kin kin kin.

Prove your mettle and help him settle.

Be not a rotter as before my good daughter!”

Ping curtsied

Then hopped away,

From breakfast nook passage

Of royal underground burrow,

But on two legs rather than four.

 

Princess Ping swayed from side to side,

In a very hip-hoppy juvenile fashion

As her royal golden medallion,

Flipped and spun under her neck

Like a clock-work pendulum. (penj)

 

Princess Ping stroked one long white velvety ear

With her bejeweled rabbit fingers

As she sought the royal tunnel exit.

Ping popped

A great vertical hop.

She emerged from

Hole in the ground Passageway

Into a brilliant palatial park.

 

Sunlight skittered in dappled undulating patches

As it filtered through the breeze-stirred branches

Of the forests’ leafy canopy.

Princess Ping’s silky white fur,

Bathed in the intermittently effulgent sun-rays,

Scintillated like frosty,

Diamond studded rainbows.

 

Ping danced and skipped

Along one of rabbit runs’

Famed overland bunny trails,

Like an airy fairy.

She was the epitome (ip- long e) of ethereal grace. ( ith long e)

 

Her canted eyes of azure blue roamed hither and yon,

Relishing the bright, bold panoramic floral display

Of the above ground portion of her edenic home.

 

Ping’s ears twitched eagerly

As she listened to birdsong serenades.

Nearby, an ornate quad

Of towering emerald and burgundy fountains

Gushed and gurgled icily,

Spraying a fine wet mist

That delightfully tickled her muzzle,

As she glided slowly under

The monument’s cantilevered arches.

 

Ping’s countenance exuded (igzooded)

Dreamy happiness as her pink nose

Wiggled and sniffed the woodsy aromas.

Ping happily whiffed the tantalizing scents

Of roses, lilacs and sandalwood

That festooned Topiary \’tō-pē-ˌer-ē\ Menagerie (\mə-‘naj-rē) Maze

-Home of the royal orphans.

 

Princess Ping,

Like many royal children,

Was slightly self-centered and vain.

She loved to be a drama queen.

Her looking-glass was her favorite friend.

 

Away from her mirror,

Ping stopped to momentarily admire her reflection

In the fonts’ cool sparkling waters.

 

“I’m pretty pretty pretty,” she crooned,

Then grumbled about her long front teeth.

“Why are they so long, long, long?

The longest in the land?”

 

Her father

King Llorac Hatterson the third

Ruled Rabbit Run,

A magical land,

Where rabbits acted like humans,

And looked like bunny colored kangaroos.

 

King Llorac Hatterson,

Of Rabbit Run Kingdom,

Was wise, kind, and bipedal.

A strange set of traits,

But what did you expect

From a mythical lagomorphic humanoid?

 

Onced passed the quaternion (kwa tern ian) gate,

Princess Ping capered

Into the royal hedge Maze.

Numerous bunny men and woman

Stopped their various gardening tasks

To bow and greet their royal princess.

 

Soon Ping spied a new rabbit

She’d never seen before.

She guessed it was Cubby.

Cubby was gangly, yet prominently plump,

With dull, scruffy, fawn-brown fur.

 

Cubby bowed, then squeaked anxiously,

With a voice that slipped erratically

Along a scale of high and low pitches,

“Greetings Princess Rabbit! I be Cubby.

Glad to make your acquaintance I am!”

 

Princess Ping bit back

An almost overwhelming desire

To call him squeaky Squeaky Squeaky,

Chubby chubby chubby,

Rather than simply Cubby.

Ping straitened to her full height,

Then presented a stately pose,

To all the gathered bunny workers.

 

Princess Ping clasped her cold hard Imperial brooch,

With one paw,

Then Dramatically lifted the other,

Artfully curled her wrist,

And gracefully fanned her fingers.

 

Ping then replied in clipped formal speech,

“Hale, hale, hale Cubby kin!

Welcome, welcome, welcome

To the palace of the rabbit king!”

 

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

4.28.10 Wayne O’Conner

Back story:

 

• Several hundred years after Alice in Wonderland Adventure.
• Can you find the last name of the author of Alice in Wonderland spelled backwards in the poem?
• The royal family is descended from the mad hatter.
• Written for reading aloud for the Turtle Lake Library Poetry Club.