Getting Information Out of Pa

Getting Information Out of Pa

By Anonymous Anonymous
My pa he didn’t go to town
      Last evening after tea,
But got a book and settled down
      As comfy as could be.
I’ll tell you I was offul glad
      To have my pa about
To answer all the things I had
      Been tryin’ to find out.

And so I asked him why the world
      Is round instead of square,
And why the piggies’ tails are curled,
      And why don’t fish breathe air?
And why the moon don’t hit a star,
      And why the dark is black,
And just how many birds there are,
      And will the wind come back?

And why does water stay in wells,
      And why do June bugs hum,
And what’s the roar I hear in shells,
      And when will Christmas come?
And why the grass is always green,
      Instead of sometimes blue,
And why a bean will grow a bean
      And not an apple, too?

And why a horse can’t learn to moo,
      And why a cow can’t neigh?
And do the fairies live on dew,
      And what makes hair grow gray—
And then my pa got up an’ gee!
      The offul words he said,
I hadn’t done a things, but he
      Jest sent me off to bed.

Source: Father: An Anthology of Verse (EP Dutton & Company, 1931)

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Originally appeared in Poetry magazine.

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