April’s poems

… are tongue twisters from Dr. Seuss’s Oh Say Can You Say, the pages of which, thankfully, have been falling out. (I love reading Fox in Socks, but not this book.)

I have changed the poems’ titles.

“Vagueness”

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

The storm starts

when the drops start dropping.

When the drops stop dropping

then the storm starts stopping.

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

“Quiddity” (Seuss’s title is “How to Tell a Klotz from a Glotz”)

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

Well, the Glotz, you will notice,

has lots of black spots.

The Klotz is quite different

with lots of black dots.

But the big problem is

that the spots on a Glotz

are about the same size

as the dots on a Klotz.

So you first have to spot

who the one with the dots is.

Then it’s easy to tell

who the Klotz or the Glotz is.

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

“Value”

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

Upon an island hard to reach,

the East Beast sits upon his beach.

Upon the west beach sits the West Beast.

Each beach beast thinks he’s the best beast.

Which beast is best? … Well, I thought at first

that the East was best and the West was worst.

Then I looked again from the west to the east

And I liked the beast on the east beach least.

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

The truth is, he’s the liveliest person in the house.