Will I find an octopus
if in a tree I start to seek?
It has no wings, but I’ve been told
it’s got a parrot’s horny beak.
Will I find an octopus
if I should dig within the soil?
It has no legs, but I’ve been told
it’s got eight arms that stretch and coil.
if I look in a flower-bed?
It doesn’t have a skeleton
and has a very squishy head.
Might I find an octopus
if I could swim a lake so still?
It lays its eggs in water but
it has no lungs and breathes with gills.
It’s not a bird, worm, slug or frog.
These animals it never meets.
To find out where it likes to live
it helps to know just what it eats.
An octopus can squeeze in cracks
and use its arms most cleverly
to open salty shellfish … so
its habitat is in the sea!
Australian Children’s Poetry 