A Children's Poem I Wrote...

...called 'Chumphon The Smellyphant'...inspired by a real-life nickname that I had in primary school, 'Smellyfer', haha (I can laugh about it now!). Not sure I smelled quite as bad as Chumphon though- or maybe I did!

This poem is desperately missing illustrations; if anybody fancies doing some, please email me at jenmarysmith@yahoo.com.au, and any feedback is always appreciated. Enjoy!

CHUMPHON THE SMELLYPHANT

Chumphon the elephant lived in Chiang Mai

And had a cruel nickname that made her cry,

Other elephants thought she smelled so bad

They called her ‘Smellyphant’ and made her sad.

Her mum and dad loved her no matter what,

And did not realise she stank like rot.

What’s the smell like? Oh, where do I begin?

A cross between a toilet and a bin!

Other elephant mums had a small word

With Chumphon’s mum, saying ‘This is absurd!’

‘The way that your child smells is just wrong,

I think that she should be renamed Chum-PONG!’

Her parents just replied: ‘Chumphon smells great!

Why must you attack our child with hate?

Don’t listen, Chumphon, they’re jealous of you,

When you look so lovely, what can you do?’

But with no sisters, nor any brothers,

Chumphon sometimes wished to play with others.

One day, she was drinking from a river

When she heard a word that made her quiver…

‘SMELLYPHANT!’ laughed elephants, all her age,

Which filled young Chumphon with a new found RAGE!

She could take it one time, two, three, or four,

But this was the last: she could take it no more.

Look how she’s sweating through her toenail,

Flapping her ears, and swinging her tail,

Mad Chumphon quivered and shivered and shook,

Created ripples in the nearby brook,

All the forest began to shake as well,

Spreading wafts of Chumphon’s disgusting smell.

Those nasty young elephants heard a growl,

Thought it was Chumphon and began to howl

‘Don’t hurt us, Chumphon! We’re sorry, we are!

You’re great! You don’t smell! You’re a real star!’

Baffled Chumphon replied ‘But that’s not me-

What’s that orange-black flash behind that tree?’

All the elephants froze, fearing the worst-

A growl, then a ROAR, then a SUDDEN BURST

From behind that big tree, and there he stood:

Terrence the tiger, and he wanted FOOD!

Petrified, the elephants did not run,

Terrence thought all of this was such great fun,

Closer he edged, the elephants turned stiff,

Terrence licked his lips and took a big SNIFF-

In wafted Chumphon’s unsavoury smell,

Suddenly Terrence didn’t feel so well.

Unable to bear it, and feeling sick,

Terrence scarpered out of there pretty quick.

The elephants couldn’t believe he’d gone,

All thought he’d been scared by angry Chumphon!

They all realised Chumphon was brave and strong,

And that their nasty nicknames had been wrong.

There’d been no reason to make her so sad,

After all, Chumphon didn’t smell that bad.

But now that her friends were being so nice,

Chumphon decided to take their advice,

Making sure her mum scrubbed her EXTRA clean,

The cleanest elephant you’ve ever seen!

After that day, Terrence never returned,

From this tale, there are two lessons learned-

Don’t judge others until you know them well-

And tigers do not like a nasty smell!