It turns out, though, that several people have histories with axoltls. The picture book's author, Susan Hood, who discovered the little amphibious lizard while running Nick Jr. magazine. My husband, who remembered fondly coming across a photo of an axoltl in a dry scientific magazine his uncle subscribed to some five decades ago. And my good buddy Debbie Kovacs, of Walden Pond Press, whose face lit up when I mentioned the axoltl. "Axoltl!" she cried. "From MAD magazine!" It was the first I knew that gracious, bookish Debbie was a devoted MAD reader. But thanks to her catholic reading tastes, we now have a poem for Poetry Friday. And here it is.
I Wandered Lonely as a Clod
I wandered lonely as a clod,
Just picking up old rags and bottles,
When onward on my way I plod,
I saw a host of axolotls;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
A sight to make a man's blood freeze.
Some had handles, some were plain;
They came in blue, red pink, and green.
A few were orange in the main;
The damndest sight I've ever seen.
The females gave a sprightly glance;
The male ones all wore knee-length pants.
The doctor asks me what I see.
They flash upon my inward eye
And make me laugh in fiendish glee.
I find my solace then in bottles,
And I forget them axolotls.
-- MAD magazine, volume #43
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