Lioness Poem by Marshak for children

What foggy summer
In unkind this country!
I warm dress wearing,
But cold, cold to me!

Call me a savage
Because I sit in anguish,
Dreaming about Africa hot,
On the soft, hot sand.

I met a crocodile.
He smiled at me as friend.
"You mean, " I asked, -
To the bananas and palm trees to the South?"

"Child, " he answered sadly, -
Not see my native land!"
And the tears from the eyes of a crocodile
Black cheeks flowed.