"Andy, The Antelope"

                                                                               
                       For My Granddaughter, Foxy Roxy, Who Wins All Our Races


Andy the Antelope was oh so very small
When he stood with other antelope you saw him not at all
But children loved little Andy cause he was small like them
They would race with little Andy and mostly they would win

Little Andy loved the children, he could look them in the eye
They petted little Andy and issued happy sighs
But little Andy wanted "bigness"; like the other antelope
So often he would sadly walk around and mope

One day Andy found a magic garden full of wonderful things to eat
lettuce and cabbages and tomatoes, such sweet and tasty treats
Then Andy ate a cantaloupe, rind and seeds and all
The seeds soon sprouted and Andy grew to 30 feet tall

                                                 

From that day on Andy was the fastest antelope around
He towered over the others and could barely see the ground!
All the other antelope came barely to Andy's knees
While Andy rose so high he could pluck apples from the trees

Soon Andy was the pride of the entire antelope herd
For he could pluck them apples in numbers so absurd!
But the children missed little Andy and craned their necks to see
"Come back" little Andy, oh please, oh please, oh please!

Big Andy missed the children too, for they treated him so sweet
And he soon knew that being tall is really not so neat
He learned that looking into the eyes of children brings such happiness
And when you're "big", you begin to see less and less and less

So off to the magic garden Andy went once more
Ate lots of "baby carrots" and "baby spinach" galore
Then he lay down and slept in a bed of "baby yams"
And woke up hours later and he was small again

Once again Andy ran and played with kids so very small
He was oh so happy that he was no longer tall
Andy learned it's much more fun to play with little kids
He loved playing with the little ones so that's just what he did!