Short Poems for Kids

by Maggie
(Bristol, England)

I read this in a comic verse book. It is entitled

Distracted The Mother Said To Her Boy
by Gregory Harrison

Distracted the mother said to her boy
'Do you try to upset and perplex and annoy
Now give me four reasons-and don't play the fool-
Why you shouldn't get up and get ready for school'

Her son replied slowly, 'Well mother, you see,
I can't stand the teachers and they detest me,
And there isn't a boy or girl in the place
That I like or, in turn, that delights in my face'

'And I'll give you two reasons,' she said, 'why you ought
Get yourself off to school before you get caught;
Because, first, you are forty, and, next, you young fool
It's your job to be there.
You're the head of the school

Perhaps this ought to be in the category of 'Short Poems for Headmasters'