I Think I’ll Be an Otter if it’s All the Same to You

I’d like to be an otter if it’s all the same to you,

Said Simon to his mother one sunny day,

As he got on the floor and pretended to swim away.

When morning came and breakfast too,

He said ,"I’ll have raw fish if it’s all the same to you,"

"And you can take me swimming if that O.K. too."

For twenty days he rolled and rolled around the floor

Pretending to be an otter in an otter kind of way

His mother was dumbfounded; what exactly could she say?

"So tell me, dear, how long do you think you’ll be an otter?"

"I need to make some changes to the things that I do,

But I’d like you back as my little boy if it’s all the same to you."

Then finally it happened, why no one could be sure,

As quickly as it started, the cheeky little otter went away,

The mother got her boy back and hoped that’s how it would stay.

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[Author's Note: This poem is based on an experience a very good friend of mine had with her little boy just before he turned five. There was a lot of change at the time: moving house, new school, new friends and new baby sister. Was this his way of coping, escaping into an imaginary form as an otter?]

Till next time,

Calvin