To cheer myself up in today's heat:

A Fable (of sorts)


A Tortoise once said to a Hare:
"I challenge you, Friend, to a dare.
Let's run a foot race
And see who claims first place
(I believe 'twill be me)," he declared.

Now, the Hare thought this was a great joke,
For, in running, he never once choked.
The race day was set,
And the animals met,
And the bettors, they all went for broke.

In a vineyard just over the hill,
A Fox wanted grapes, for his fill.
But, try as he might,
Could not reach their height,
So decided they're nasty as pills.

Just that moment, the hare sauntered by
(A confident gleam in his eye)
"Ah! Now there goes my lunch
(Not some sour grape bunch)!"
And so after the Hare, he did fly.

Two entered the race on that day;
Two finished. And here's how it played:
The Hare won the deal,
With the Fox at his heels.
And the Tortoise? He met with delay.

And that is where this story ends.
I'm afraid there's no moral, My Friend.
But if you insist --
It's as simple as this:
"Carrots are straight, and Bananas have bends."