Reply To: Word Association

[Bry]

(Are we trading hippopotamus doggerel?

I shoot the Hippopotamus
With bullets made of platinum,
Because if I use leaden ones
His hide is sure to flatten ’em.

— Hilaire Belloc

And of course, Patrick Barrington’s brilliant “I Had a Hippopotamus” — I’ll limit myself to two verses:

If he should be affected by depression or the dumps,
By hippopotameasles or hippopotamumps,
I never knew a particle of peace ’til it was plain
He was hippopotamasticating properly again.

I had a hippopotamus, I loved him as a friend
But beautiful relationships are bound to end.
Time takes, alas! our joys from us and robs us of our blisses.
My hippopotamus turned out to be a hippopotamissus.

)