Mum makes a mark on the chart
to see how much I’ve grown.
Last time I was about the size
of a toddling Emperor penguin
(but taller than my brother
who’s just a Shetland pony).
I have shot up, Mum says.
Rrrr! I’m now standing proud
as a lion. If I swirl my arms
and jiggle eight fingertips
at once, I am very nearly an
octopus (tentacles included).
From octopus, I can e-x-t-e-n-d
my neck as far as it will go
(while teetering on one leg)
to almost the pink and dizzy
heights of flamingo and from
flamingo I can raise myself
onto the tippy toes of my paws
to nearly-there polar bear and
from bear it’s not too much
of a stretch to mountain gorilla
and gorilla is only a chair-hop
away from white rhino. My
little brother gazes up and asks
(his lower lip wobbling a bit)
if I’ve grown too big for hugs.
I say even vastly ginormous
white rhinos need cuddles,
especially from Shetland ponies.
*
Vicky Gatehouse is a zoologist, poet, children’s writer and STEM Ambassador. Her poems have featured in many magazines including Northern Gravy, The Toy, Little Thoughts Press and the Pan Macmillan anthologies. Vicky also writes picture books and was recently shortlisted for the Searchlight Awards and runner up for the Write Mentor Picture Book Prize. Vicky’s collection of children’s poems, In the Footprints of Elephants, has recently been shortlisted by The Emma Press.
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