for little listeners with big imaginations
Centipede
From the Little People Poems series: Centipede
One hundred feet is just too many
Why did God have to count so high?
Shopping for shoes is a nightmare
I’m sure I don’t have to say why
My laundry line’s full of socks
By tens, no, by the dozen
But multiplies when Matilda visits
My twice-removed cousin
I think to myself
“Always take your first step with your left”
But with so many lefts to remember
I trip and feel bereft
I dare say when it’s time to bring
My children out to play
Time for boots?
I secretly hide, because it takes all day
Climbing a tree, climbing walls,
Now that’s a different story
This is where my one hundred feet
Are in their finest glory
I can slip ninety-nine times
And still have one foot hanging on
Being a bit, or a lot, of a klutz
I’d otherwise be gone
So after almost falling
So many times in a row
I thank God for one hundred feet
That save me wherever I go
I am not quite sure why
God made me this way
I’m happy to be me
In one hundred and more ways
Easter Ellen
More Centipede Poems:
1. Cenipede
2. Centipede’s 100 Laces
~ Smiling with words that won’t leave me alone until they tickle the page.
Easter Ellen writes poetry, prose, fables, reflections, devotional pieces, and three-degree-sideways observations on life. Her work moves through humour, beauty, bite, tenderness, story, and the truth she relentlessly seeks beneath ordinary moments.
She also helps women think clearly, choose intentionally, and move forward with self-trust through content, coaching packages that meet them where they are, and practical tools for building better habits and thinking processes.