Managing Editor's Note:
Everybody's getting in the act! And now, in response to Sarah Hart's response to my first ode, heeere's Tom!

You're Old to Ode, So Let the Young-ins Speak!

By Tom Booth (on behalf of young walruses everywhere)

My Mom and Dad, both long in tooth,
have spoken publicly.
The Walrus way they doth do speak
and wax poetically.

But I'm a teen, "I'm young," I say.
My walrus teeth are stubs.
For all my friends I raise my "flip,"
Alas, not in the pubs.

Of Fall they speak, of coffee breaks,
and changing dirty pants.
But I must raise my toothy voice.
Try speaking clear? Me 'cants!

Of zits, and school, and many books,
my life on ice is full.
If only I could walk a mile.
We slide and flop, it's cruel.

My friends, we all do bark and snort,
eating sushi all day long.
My parents chill at home and work
on prose and poems and songs.

But we are not the future, no!
We are the "calf church" now!
With walrus eyes and slippery skin,
and yet they call Mom "cow"!?

Of fallen leaves, and bare-ing trees,
Alarm clocks needing crushed?
We'll show you "tough" with growing tusks.
Us young-ins got the musk.

The world we live is water and ice,
though shrinking to be sure.
The global warm and dirty foam
make many Wal-teens fear.

For Super stores and carts and Marts,
the humans took our name.
They even name their pharmacies,
of blubber, fishy fame.

But we Wal-teens are smarter still,
while Dad does top the scale.
It's not how one does flop on land,
it's in the sea we sail!

So, Mom and Dad, Yo! Cow and Bull,
know that we hear your tale!
But chill a bit, and throw no fit.
Partake of bean and ale.

For you we love, and grateful still,
for all the work and tarry.
But 'member most, the sacred host,
that saved our endangered tails!

[Dedicated to John Lennon, of Beatle fame, who first introduced many of us to our inner walrus. Coo-coo-ca-choo!]

Managing Editor's Final Note: Okay, what started out as a stand-alone ode to autumn ended up as a doggerel trilogy. Wouldn't you know it? The Spotters are poets! So how do we get out of here? To paraphrase the aforementioned Mr. Lennon from the cartoon movie, Yellow Submarine: "We go out singing!" Here's a song by Steve Angrisano for walruses young and young at heart:
Celebrate Youth