My mum always told me
want never gets
but please
it’s an inch I want,
just one,
maybe three
not for the girth
no dearth, see?
Longer legs
or a swan-like neck
would do the trick.
I don’t want to be
as tall as a tree
no sirree, not for me
but less the butt of
sizeist jokes.
And oh! to see
the whole of the screen
without bobbing and flailing
like the Churchill dog.
it’s an inch I want,
no more than four,
to reach the top shelf
without asking for help
and not feel like an elf
in Waitrose and Aldi
I’m done
with feeling little in Lidl.
Jude Compson
