A Beautiful Poem by Wendy Cope

Tich Miller

Tich Miller wore glasses
with elasto-plast pink frames
and had one foot three sizes larger than the other

When they picked teams for outdoor games
she and I were always the last two
left standing by the wire mesh fence

We avoided one anothers eyes
stooping, perhaps, to re-tie a shoelace
or affecting interest in a flight

of some fortunate bird, and pretended
not to hear the urgent conference:
"Have Tubby!" "No have Titch"

usually they chose me, the lesser dud,
and she lolloped back, unselected
to the back of the other team

At eleven we went to different schools.
In time I learnt how to get my own back,
sneering at hockey players who couldn't spell.

Tich died when she was twelve.

( I was a Tich Miller. Maybe some of those hockey player's children will become a Titch too. Things have a way of coming back on us, sometimes in a roundabout way.)

This reminds me of the coldplay lyrics " Just because I'm losing, doesn't mean I'm lost. Doesn't mean I'll stop. You might be a big fish in a little pond, doesn't mean you've won, because along will come a bigger one." How very true. ;D