Octopuses come and go—
So must, of course, we all—
A final act, celebrity
Does nothing to forestall;
But there was one eight-legged sort
Who held us in his thrall
The octopus-cum-oracle
We came to know as Paul.
A bit of zoo publicity
You probably recall:
Presented with two choices,
Toward the winner he would crawl!
His name lives on in legend;
Now he takes a curtain call,
With a statue and memorial,
Where he sits atop a ball.
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