A Raft Of Penguins - Ian Anderson

A raft of penguins on a frozen sea

Expectant faces look down on me

Shuffle uneasy.

The whistler plays

Counting eleven, they begin to pray

Tenuous but clinging, the missing link

Joins us, closer than we might think

Some half remembered coarse jungle drum —

A naked heart-beat, trill and hum

This world’s no stage for the faint at heart

Each symphony, a sum of parts

Each overture, a sweet foreplay

Let’s crash and burn some other day

Bonded in terror or suspicion deep

Tentative tiptoe or giant leap

Call down the angels to guide them in

A raft of penguins take to the wing