The Labrador is hounding a French poodle,
The Persian kitten nipped the neighbor’s Scottie,
The Siamese Fighting Fish ate the Peruvian
Longfins, and is gulping at a guppy.

Japanese beetles vandalize the Swiss chard,
Dutch elm disease has blighted Kalamazoo,
Kansas kids are catching German measles,
and Maine reports a plague of Asian flu.

So goes the nation – and, in fact, the world;
Our skin is our frontier, our life’s a border.
World order would be nice, but we make do,
Stuck here in the same old pecking order.