SONNET DARE: The Tauntaun And The Toucan

A common ancestry just might unite
These two uncommon creatures I've been dared
To put in this, my sonnet for the night:
Ramphastidae and tauntaun. Are you scared?
But toucans (as Ramphastidae are called)
Are birds and thus the dinosaurs' grandkids
(Removed some generations), while the bald,
Unlovely tauntans, living on the skids
Of Hoth, ice planet, reptomammals are.
The latter are made-up for Star Wars Two
(Or Five if you buy into that bizarre
Asynchronicity); the former flew
First through my childish thoughts as cereal pimps
And only in the zoos are mine to glimpse.

BONUS SONNET DARE: Jiminy The (Chocolate-Covered?) Flightless Vomiting Cricket

Sometimes there really is no stopping me,
Inspired by a cricket as I am.
And what a cricket: blood and guts and squee!
(That last is me, though I suppose it can
Make noises like that if it likes). This one,
Acanthoplus discoidalis cannot
Fly off or fight too well, yet has a fun
And fabulous defense when it is caught:
It bleeds green nasty goo, then vomits all
Its last meal so the lizard spits it out!
If other lizards see this wherewithal
They leave the bug alone. Let's give a shout!
For, e'en if it were chocolate-coated, it
Would be a poor hors d'œuvre, you must admit.

SONNET DARE: Oxydation Numbers Represent The Charge After Ligands Are Removed

O Roman numerals! What can't you do?
Among your uses is denoting a
Coordination compound's charge in lieu
Of what its ligands add. Now ligands, they
Are atoms bound to metals which donate
Electrons, not from kindness but because
Its nicer to be neutral - not a state
To scoff at, for it's stable by all laws
Of matter that we know: To have a charge
Is to repel like, draw unlike and to make --
But I digress; this topic is too large
For fourteen lines of poetry to take
A proper survey of, at least for me.
Oxidation numbers, I flee from thee!