George Washington’s Birthday: Wondering

By Bobbi Katz b. 1933 Bobbi Katz

I wonder what I would have said

if my dad asked me,

"Son, do you know who cut down

my pretty cherry tree?"

I think I might have closed my eyes

and thought a little bit

about the herds of elephants

I'd seen attacking it.

I would have heard the rat-a-tat

of woodpeckers, at least,

or the raging roar of a charging boar

or some such other beast!

Perhaps a hippopotamus

with nothing else to do

had wandered through our garden

and stopped to take a chew.

We all know George said,

"Father, I cannot tell a lie."

Yet I can't help but wonder ...

Did he really try?

Bobbi Katz, “George Washington's Birthday.” Copyright © 1992 by Bobbi Katz. Reprinted with the permission of the author, www.bobbikatz.com.

Source: Ring Out Wild Bells (Harcourt Inc., 1992)

Biography

Bobbi Katz once told Contemporary Authors: "I write for children because I hope to join those writers and artists who delight, sensitize, and give hope to children." A former editor at Random House, Katz has had success publishing her own rhyming picture books for elementary school students. These range from the sublime, such as American History Poems and We, the People, to the outright ridiculous, such as A Rumpus of Rhymes: A . . .

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