Elections in the Animal Kingdom

Elections in the Animal Kingdom

 a fable 

Author: unknown

Translated from the Spanish by Roberto Hope

The lion has died. What a dreary catastrophe!
And in the purest sense of a democracy,
a new king will be elected by the animals.

Pervasive was the election propaganda.
Pie in the sky was promised by the speakers.
And … here you can read about some of the winners:

Though you might call them nothing less than fools,
the lambs' vote went to favor the wolf 
their heart being Oh, so incredibly soft! 

For the cat, were the mice those who voted.
And, in spite of her fame — wily and cunning,
for the fox voted the hens and the chicken.

The dove, being  so remarkably innocent,
voted for none other than the serpent.

The flies, dreading the election being won by the tiger,
saw a lesser evil in voting for the spider.

Yearns the toad, dreams the frog, 
of the delightful kingship of the stork

With a worm
who slithered slowly to vote for the mole,
bumped the mole into, without so much as a whimper 
but his vote goes to favor the weasel.

The fish, whose great home is the sea,
quite content gave their vote for the seal.

The horse and the dog did, no wonder,
cast their vote to be ruled by the human.

And with the most deep of sorrows
for not being able to trot to the ward,
A moribund ass dragged his body 
To go cast his last vote for the buzzard

Dear readers who inconsistencies note:
Say, don't you do the same thing when you vote?