Timicky Brown
©2011 Susan Noyes Anderson
Image by Chandan Chaurasia on Unsplash
I have a pet lizard named Timicky Brown,
who lives in the guest bathroom shower.
He feasts upon lettuce, sleeps on the drain,
and lies on my shoulder for hours.
I take him to parties where he is a smash.
His manners are better than most.
He doesn’t bite, bark or leave bread crumbs behind,
and has never jumped up on his host.
Our guests love him, once they get used to the sight
of him basking on their toilet seat;
though some take a little more time to adjust
to the brush of his small lizard feet.
He’s a wonderful pet, is my Timicky Brown,
a wizard at growing new tails.
They say he’s cold-blooded, but I can’t agree.
Tim’s a gentleman, down to his scales.
∞§∞
Believe it or not, this poem was inspired by an actual pet lizard, named Timicky by my four-year-old sister. Nikki trained him to sit on her shoulder, and she once took him to show-and-tell at school, where he stayed on her shoulder the entire day. He did indeed live in the shower, much to my mother’s chagrin, and he was fed on an uninspiring diet of lettuce laced with whatever desert bugs and buds we could find. He was beloved by all.
If this poem resonates with you, you might also enjoy reading Waiting Room Zoo.
