The Moose and the Frog

Dedicated to my friend Moose Millard upon his triumphant speech in Evansville, Indiana.

The Moose and The Frog:
(A Lesson For When Things Go Awry)

The Moose and the frog flew off one day,
With no thought things could get out of hand.
To Indiana they did go,
To speak in the great Heartland.

When they got there, things were all amiss,
As there was no runway to land.
So the Moose and the frog jumped out of the plane.
“Geronimo!” they yelled on command.

The Moose went first, he landed prone,
Stretched out, just flat on his tummy.
The frog went next and tried to help,
But the Moose was as stiff as a dummy.

The Moose bumped his head, and then he saw red.
He screamed like a frightened coyote.
The frog was so scared, when the Moose screamed out loud,
That the frog jumped right down his throat.

The Moose couldn’t talk and proceeded to cough,
While his voice got thicker and thicker.
It was all so perverse, then to make matters worse,
The Moose lost control of his clicker!

He looked out in the crowd; “They must think me a fool!”
“They must think I’m a true maniac.”
“I need to discover a way to recover.”
“I must stop this heart attack!”

He thought of his friend, how might he handle this?
Would he joke, would his magic fix all?
Then he looked to himself… and he reached down deep…
And inside, found the wherewithal.

“What happened?” You ask. “How did it turn out?”
You’re curious…and also concerned.
I’ll tell you the truth, but remember this,
There’s a lesson here to be learned.

If you have a bad day, and you think you’ve messed up,
And you’re having a terrible fright.
Don’t sob in despair; don’t pull out your hair.
Things will usually turn out all right.

The crowd never noticed the things that went wrong.
They just wanted the Moose to succeed.
They saw he was one, who walked his talk,
One who truly lived by his creed.

In due course, the frog did finally pop out,
And the Moose— he survived the duration.
In the end you should know, at the Evansville show…
That the Moose got a standing ovation.

3/29/04


Note: Sadly, Moose passed away on February 3, 2009. He was one-of-a-kind. He is missed by everyone he ever met, whom he made feel as if you had known him all your life.