The Dog and Pony Show

The Dog and Pony

Put on a show

The Dog tried

Hopping on the Pony

And riding around

But the Dog got Pony-sick

And had to get down

And lay down

And the show was cancelled

And the audience said--

‘Wow, what a Dog and Pony show’

The next week

The Pony told the Dog

No Pony rides

And so instead

The Dog threw a stick

And the Pony tried to catch it

Because the Dog knew

The audience would expect

The Dog to go fetch the stick

And the Dog knew that the trick

To a very good show

Is to give the audience

Something they wouldn’t expect

But the Pony had no practice

At finding sticks

And so while it was looking

The audience got bored

And wandered away

And as they did

They mumbled--

‘Wow, what a Dog and Pony show’

The next week

The Dog told the Pony

No fetching sticks

And that this week

No surprises

Because even though

An audience loves surprises

It’s very difficult

To pull off a surprise

Whereas predictable things

Are predictably much easier

To pull off

And so this week

The Pony was going

To throw the stick

And the Dog was going to fetch it

And the audience showed up

And the Pony threw the stick

And the Dog fetched it

And the audience was expecting that

So they got bored

And left saying--

‘Wow, what a Dog and Pony show’

The next week

The Pony told the Dog

That after thinking about it

It seemed as though

The smart thing to do

Would be to do

Two predictable things

At the same time

And so the audience showed up

And the Dog fetched the stick

And the Pony ate some hay

And while the audience stayed

A little bit longer

Eventually they still got bored

And left

And as they left

They muttered--

‘Wow, what a Dog and Pony show’

The next week

The Dog told the Pony

That the problem was

They were doing predictable things

That dogs and ponies would do

Instead of predictable things

That other animals might do

And maybe that was the secret

To a very good show

And so the audience arrived

Sat down

And the Dog meowed

And the Pony mooed

And it was very strange

And the audience didn’t know

What was happening

And so they soon left

And as they left they groaned--

‘Wow, what a Dog and Pony show’

The next week

The Dog and Pony decided

That they wouldn’t worry

About the kind of show

The audience would like to see

Because worrying about that

Only seemed to end

With the audience leaving

And grumbling

So the Dog played frisbee

With the Pony

And the Pony galloped

Alongside the Dog

And without even realizing it

Pretty soon, the Dog and the Pony

Were in front of an audience

The biggest audience they ever had

And when they were done

Doing what they wanted to do the most

The audience applauded

And the Dog and Pony bowed

And promised themselves

They would only do what they wanted

From that point on

And as the audience left

They beamed and laughed

And said--

‘Now THAT was a Dog and Pony show!’