POEM
Dog Science

by Jennifer Nerissa Davis

mouse

(Posted August 6, 1999 · Issue 60)


Find more great reading matter on the Galapagos Summer Reading list.


Today I'm going to solve the Two Ball Problem.
I would have solved it yesterday
but I was distracted by
how to put Ball In Box,
and then there was Bone To Chew

must Chew Bone every day,
keeps the veterinarian away.

Of course there's also Ball And Bone
or Ball In Dish,
useful if you require a method
of auto-pitch,
and Run With Dish
is a most excellent calisthenic.
As your stamina increases
add a head toss or two,
maybe some snorts.
It will keep your body challenged
so that you may address the problem at hand,
the unsolved but solvable
Two Ball Problem.
If you want to possess two balls
in simultaneity
but your mouth can hold
just one you simply

Run With Dish every day
will make you strong and fit to play.

If you want a hole in the earth,
you dig and the hole is there.
You dig, you dig, you dig, you dig.
You must expend the effort
to receive the reward,
you dig? Good.
Ah, digging

must Dig Holes once a week
to keep your toenails at their peak.

So, we return to the problem,
the problem at hand,
the mysterious
impenetrable
Two Ball Problem.

If you want to possess
Two Balls at once
but your mouth can hold
just one
then you must hold the other
with another
anatomical
part.
Take the paw
for example,
good for digging,
digging, digging, running,
walking, scratching,
not carrying or holding
unless,
through a rigorous program
of

must Chase Ball all the time
catching, fetching, so sublime

run With Dish every day
will make you strong and fit to play

must Dig Holes once a week
to keep your toenails at their peak.

must Chew Bone every day,
keeps the veterinarian away

Today I'm going to solve the two ball problem
I was going to solve it yesterday
but I was distracted by
how to put Ball In Box



Jennifer Nerissa Davis received her Ph.D. in psychology in 1996 from McMaster University, where she studied parental behavior and the evolution of the family in both humans and non-human animals. She is currently with the Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, and will soon take a position in the department of theoretical biology at Humboldt University in Berlin. She has a border collie.


Previous Featured Poems
The Skylark
by John Clare (Posted July 23, 1999 · Issue 59)
To a Mouse
by Robert Burns (Posted July 9, 1999 · Issue 58)
The Science of Longevity
by Jemshed Khan (Posted June 25, 1999 · Issue 57)
Sonnet - to Science
by Edgar Allen Poe (Posted June 11, 1999 · Issue 56)
Disclaimer, and an Invitation
by Trenton Hickman (Posted May 28, 1999 · Issue 55)
To Music, to becalm his Fever
by Robert Herrick (Posted May 14, 1999 · Issue 54)

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