P is for Pangolin

In an alphabet book that my grandson once liked,

One page unfamiliar to me

Which, in turn, got my curiosity spiked,

Was the animal listed for P.

 

For a pangolin isn’t your average beast,

But an anteater covered in scales,

Looking quite prehistoric from head to, not least

Of its features, those long spiky nails.

 

It waddles in search of its main source of food,

For which it employs every sense,

Yet if threatened, it is very quickly subdued;

Curling up is its only defense.

 

I learned all about this today on TV,

But I’m glad that awareness was raised

In an alphabet book on which, ages ago,

Both my grandson and I once had gazed.