It was bedtime last night and I was reading some Seuss
- To my son, who adores Seuss like he adores apple juice*
- With cookies, never milk, yes my son’s a bit odd*
- He prefers fish to candy: “Chocolate? No. Pass the cod!”*
We were reading about Who-ville and that kind elephant
- Horton’s his name, such a splendiferous temperament*
- If you remember the story, there’s lots of bad guys*
- the Wickersham Brothers and a pantload of allies*
Like that sour Kangaroo and Vlad Vladikoff
- who do nothing but make fun of Horton and scoff*
- Because he’s the only one who can hear those cute Whos*
- The mob’s out to get him, and get those Whos, too*
The story’s a classic, I loved it as a lad
- But reading it now, as a more sensitive dad*
- I have to complain about one major flaw*
- Something, as a kid, I just never saw*
The mob tortures poor Horton, there’s ropes and caging
- He’s tormented psychologically, with all them raging*
- When finally the Whos succeed in proving*
- to the angry mob that was so, SO abusing*
That they do, indeed, exist on that clover
- There’s never once an apology, the story’s just sorta over*
- There’s no sorry, no shame, no remorse, no gesture*
- To ask for forgiveness, no pardon to measure*
Horton and the Whos are relieved; the hell is over
- But I want that Kangaroo to apologize! I want closure!*
- Seriously: What kind of lesson is this to teach our kids?*
- Where the bad guys get off scot-free after all those mean things they gone done and did?*
