In the gray canyon of our government
cubicles, where routine entombs lesser spirits,
Fareed lights a sparkler of a story during lunch.
This guy turns cereal box copy to folklore.
Ever heard of the Arkansas buffalo fish? asks Fareed.
Fishermen love apocrypha as much as politicians,
but this behemoth is as real as a layoff.
Like a Great Plains buffalo,
it wallows in my office daydreams.
Buffalo fish a hundred years old,
streaked with dark fat and wisdom,
eager to crow about the taste of earthworms in 1929.
Young buffalo fools chasing a hushpuppy on a hook.
Buffalos four feet, eighty pounds, and growing.
Buffalos fried like chicken nuggets, feeding a family of ten.
I bet you’re gonna give it a nickname, I say.
Don’t Southern nicknames make life grand?
We don’t go in for that anymore, says Fareed.
But him that catches the biggest buffalo—
we call him the Daddy Rabbit.
Written by John Coggin
Voiced by Neil Wallang
Animated by Saionba Laishram