Classic Poem

Some nights my mother would read to me from A Child's Garden of Verses , a strange world where children talked like grownups and had nannies and counterpanes and there were a lot of other things I'd never heard of. But I was learning to read, too, from the Dick and Jane books at school, another place that sometimes bewildered me — where everyone always smiled and was unbelievably polite, where there never seemed to be any kind of trouble at all. How I marveled at Dick and Jane's perfect house and parents, and especially at their little dog Spot, who could get everyone excited just by jumping up. " Look! " they'd all shout, " See Spot run! " as if that were some sort of miracle.
I had to face it — as much as I liked their dog, Dick and Jane weren't the kind of kids I'd want for friends, any more than the ones who had nannies and didn't get to go outside by themselves. My mother never wore necklaces and high heels around the apartment, either, and Dick and Jane's father never sat in the kitchen in his undershirt. It was Dick and Jane's father I wondered about the most. I finally decided he'd probably give just about anything to get away somewhere for a smoke and a beer. " Look, look! " they all would say. " See Father run! "