The Race

I was looking through my old primary school workbooks, and I stumbled across this poem I wrote. Seeing as I haven’t posted anything in what - three days? I thought I’d share it with you. I could have edited it and made it rhyme better, but I decided to leave it just the way it was when I was little.
It’s called The Race:

The leopard runs faster than the fox
The rabbit pauses and on the wood he knocks
To wake up the sleeping skunk who lays there
Trust kind rabbit, no one else would ever care

Leopard sprints, he’ll win this race for sure
But fox is so clever he takes the hidden floor
Swiftly and invisibly he moves secretly
Left then right then up the old brown tree

Rabbit carries the skunk they try hard to win
She knows how important this race is for him
He wakes up and dashes off without a care
He only wants the reward, he would never share

Rabbit stops and she begins to cry
Mean skunk, she doesn’t get why
He left her so very quickly after all that she’d done
If he hadn’t then together they both could have won

Leopard doesn’t tier and he won’t till the end
The prize will fulfil him his heart it will mend
He has his own little story like all living things do
But he’ll tell no one, not even once the race is through

He could never run fast enough to out speed his past
The pretty leopard lady is a memory gone in a blast
The witty fox is getting close he’s almost in the lead
He’s clever and fearless, he doesn’t rely on speed

The fox he wants the prize to share with his family
They are going through some rough times you see
He doesn’t even think the others lives may be in tatters
When you go through hard times no one else ever matters

Rabbit only joined the race for a bit of fun
She deserves to win more than anyone
But this is no fairy tale race, she hasn’t much chance
Why can’t the world be filled with peace and romance?

There was never much hope for skunk
Off to sleep he goes in another tree trunk
He used to be happy, have friends and a heart
Until he became selfish, then it all fell apart

Rabbit makes haste she’ll try her best
She see’s skunk, having a bit of a rest
Skunk wakes up and she says hello
He gets cross and tells her to go

She apologises so genuinely to him
Skunk isn’t the smartest he’s rather dim
He shoos her away and she starts to cry
He looks up at her sorrily and asks her why

She tells him her dreams of peace
Skunk sobs like a sudden release
Of all his emotions bottled up inside
Friends they will be, skunk does decide

Together Rabbit and Skunk run to the finish
But the prize is not reachable, a far away wish
They have won a better prize than the animal that comes first will
They have won each others friendship, but to the finish they run still

So fox and leopard are both way ahead
They both won’t the prize, as I have said
Fox can see leopard and leopard will never know
Fox can see leopards heart even when it doesn’t show

Fox is so smart and can see all sorts of things
He would have won this race if he had wings
But he stays down low and hides himself
Like the rotting cookie behind your shelf

Leopard runs free in the open, fox can see his pain
But fox see’s all, the prize is still left for him to gain
So neck to neck they run to the finish… leopard comes first
Leopard casually takes the prize, as fox almost dies of thirst

Leopard is his same old self, the prize didn’t help him much
Skunk and rabbit have won a prize you can’t actually touch
Fox will head back home to his loving family, he didn’t win the prize
But he realised he’s better off than leopard, which was a nice surprise