Unusual Chameleons
Rivka has a brilliant post about a conversation with her daughter, who is three, here. Do read it. This inspired me to write the following poem, which is of a kind I haven't written very much since Z got too old for them. This is for Alex. (I'm posting it over here too in case I want to find it later.)

Chameleons change colour, that's the way they stay alive
But Unusual Chameleons can drive.
Chameleons are lizards, they can run, and sleep, and feed,
But Unusual Chameleons can read.
Chameleons can look both ways out of their separate eyes,
But Unusual Chameleons are wise.
Chameleons (I looked this up) mostly just live to eight
But Unusual Chameleons can wait...

When they're ninety, very cautiously, they pack up all their books
Then they set off down the highway very fast
And while one eye is reading, then the other eye just looks
At the traffic and the roads they're going past.
Now, the thing that's most Unusual, while driving down the street
Is the thing that gives Chameleons their name
As they're reading and they're speeding, they change colour head to feet
And the car that they are driving does the same!