Chris Vasantkumar
TALLEST
for the twenty-four individuals known to have attained the height of eight feet tall or greater
1.
Known for being the second (possibly)
tallest living person
Giant
invariably
appears in parentheses
after his name
2.
His skeleton
is incomplete: one arm
and his breastbones [sic]
are missing his shoulder
blades disconnected
his feet replaced by cork
his remains
such as they are
were borne to the grave
by a relay of fourteen standard men
3.
In his will a request that his body
be entombed in twelve feet of solid rock
to discourage rubberneckers
nearly a century later workmen
laying drains uncover his bones
he is photographed measured
reburied sixty-six years later
they unearth and remeasure
and rebury him again
4.
He possessed the world’s largest tootsies
5.
His exact height was controversial
photographed for The Hindu
at a political rally for a regional party
he was refused induction into the Army
at a height of 7 feet 9 inches
6.
Born in Guelmim Morocco
sometimes called Gateway to the Desert
he was the first of 20 children
as a youth he lived with his family on the north side of Chicago
he had a great-grandfather in Italy who was also of abnormal height
he spoke French English Métchif Sioux and Cree
he was an excellent horseman
but abandoned the trade early for the benefit of his steed
7.
By the time he was 17 he joined a Portuguese circus
there he had no difficulties finding shoes
if there were a size for them
they would be a European 63
8.
He had the face of a mountie and six times his boots
finally
a Pennsylvania hosiery company began custom-making his socks
9.
He considered his size to be an advantage
in his salesmanship prospective customers could never forget
it allowed him to see great distances
and help his family with domestic tasks
involving high places there
being some truth in that old canard
conversely he never fit
in a hammock
or a Citroën
10.
He wrestled a famous strongman and lost
quickly
11.
He wore a giant’s top hat and held
a clutch of generously
sized grapefruit above the heads
of smaller men
for publicity photos
he moved to Järvenpää and ran a chicken farm there
he refused to be remeasured by their standards
12.
He and his wife famously
did not share a language
his height was much disputed
13.
He had a very large and unusual body
he could not stand because of the weight of his giant’s head
at the end of September 1920 he was rented for some time
by a person named Khoshorkhan
to be exhibited in Teheran
14.
Even the tall soldiers of Emperor Wilhelm seemed like children beside him
15.
He was working in a circus
at the Great Lakes Exposition
when he met his future wife
after eloping the couple
settled down in Florida in Gibsonton
a famous sideshow wintering town conjoined
twin sisters ran a fruit stand here at one time
it had the only post office with a counter for dwarfs
for miles around residents were allowed
to keep elephants and circus trailers
on their premises
but relatively few did so there
he became active in community affairs
was owner-operator of Giant’s Camp Lodge & Fish Camp
and a repair shop for big-screen TV’s
16.
He was presented to Queen Victoria Virchow
the famous doctor confirmed
his digits
17.
His name in lights required oversize umlauts
as soon as he finished his tour he died of TB
18.
According to calculations by a licensed
structural engineer his height would have been
8 ft 7 and three quarters inches
assuming normal curvature of the spine
19.
Known in the literature as the Buffalo Giant
20.
“He was a man who was the tallest person in recorded history
for whom there is irrefutable evidence.” This sentence
in six-inch-high letters is still shorter than his arms at 5
attending kindergarten he wore the clothes of a 17-year-old boy
in the heat in Manistee
where the metal rubs against his skin
the red mark spreads across his ankle if
he can just get through this afternoon
21.
A painting by an unknown artist
in the Stadhuis in Edam portrays her life size
but “more beautiful than she really was”
according to the caption her looks
were rather ordinary for a normal woman
in the Spanish Netherlands at the time but
above average for a giantess
her belt holds a sheath with knife fork and spoon
a keyring a pincushion
her epitaph is said to have read
“Trijntje Crelis groote meidt oudt 17 jaer”
or in English:
“Trijntje Crelis big girl 17 years of age”
big girl
even in death
they could not resist needling her
22.
Bud Rogan sold postcards and his drawings in the train station,
used a cart pulled by goats like a wheelchair.
He was always the center of attention,
skin as brown as wet loam. His voice
sounded like the shifting of tectonic plates.
His laugh older and louder
than God’s.
In a newspaper article, it is said that his maternal grandfather was also a giant,
requiring a larger than normal saddle when he rode horses.
By the time he died, he was dried and bent like straw
“a living skeleton.” These facts are presented
dispassionately for posterity, brandished
like an embroidered femur in the redoutable
listicles of the internet. Here he is
Pictured barefoot,
floppy hat and overalls on his cart
towed by long-horned goats
alongside a small boy
in a much smaller cart,
pulled by smaller goats
through the rutted, dirty streets
of Gallatin, Tennessee.
23.
Only in the sideshow
(never in the center ring) what
kind of biographies are these
24.
At the time of his death
he was still growing
CHRIS VASANTKUMAR teaches anthropology on the north shore of Sydney, Australia, where he lives with his partner, two sons, and Clancy the chocolate labrador somewhere on the edges of unceded Garigal, Dharug, and Gayamaygal land. His scholarly work has been published in numerous academic journals. His poetry appears in Plume Poetry Journal, BoomerLitMag, and Cordite Poetry Review and will be published in RHINO in 2026.
