George Washington’s Birthday: Wondering

BY 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?

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