Pachyderm Love

Pachyderm Love

I met a lonely elephant asleep on the jungle gym.
I gently woke her up and took her home on a sudden whim.
She's very tall and I'm quite small, only reaching to her knees.
She's gray and wrinkly, kinda stinky, and answers to Louise.

First things first, my mom says, she needs to smell more like a rose.
To the pool with bubbles and brushes, clean her from ears to toes.
She jumps right in, one enormous splash, water flies everywhere.
I'm dripping wet, but that's not all, so's my cat and big sis, Claire.

I show her my room and all my stuffies, and she sits upon a stool.
No elephants on furniture is now the number one rule.
She blushes, chagrined, but I'm not the least bit upset at all.
We sweep up the shards, throw them away, and on the floor we sprawl.

I ride on her back all the way to the best school of ballet.
My pachyderm and I learn how to arabesque and plie.
Right before bedtime, I trim her nails and scratch her round belly
While eating popcorn and watching our fave show on the telly.

Louise may lack hands, but she has something more awesome than those.
It is her proboscis, her trunk, her exceedingly long nose.
She gives my sister the best backrubs and tickles me silly,
And at night she trumpets the monsters away willy-nilly.

My pachyderm, she helps me get down all the things I can't reach,
And my friends and I agree she's a blast to have at the beach.
She has instant recall, repeats every joke that's been said.
I don't get them all and sometimes she has me scratching my head.

And you have just got to believe with her two huge, flappy ears
How she so patiently listens to my dreams, secrets, and fears.
And when my frustrated mom screams, "Tizzy, Clean up your room!"
My wonderful friend is a vacuum cleaner, duster, and broom.

When life gets me down and I am feeling tired and blue
Or when I screw up and do something that a friend shouldn't do,
I lay my head on her shoulder and Louise settles my cries
And I spy the African savannah in her big, brown eyes.

The only problem we have that is, well, a bit of a drag,
Is picking up pachyderm pooh in a thirty-gallon bag.
My family and I, we have many pets. It's one crazy zoo.
A snake and a gecko, two 'keets, a cat, a rat and three ewe.

I love them all, but Louise is my favorite, she's second to none.
We will be best pals for keeps since she will live to sixty-one.
So, if you need a lifelong forever friend, may I suggest?
An elephant, pachyderm -- they are absolutely the best!