goodbye dick jane and sally, spot and puff
to the neighborhood with pale green fences perhaps
the hollyhocks spilling over with the sweet peas
unless I've got the flowers mixed up
but you won't mind you'll just say
run spot run, funny Sally and my name's not Sally.
so I'm o.k. even if my little sister thinks I'm weird.
I remember when I was young and so were you
in the picture primers in Grades 1 and 2, perhaps even 3
and then before, in workbooks, I came to know you
when the teacher would say:
little boys and girls
put on your thinking caps today
and we went through the motions
of fastening under our chins
the hats that would keep us focused
how we believed in them
as easily as Santa Claus and the Good Fairy.
you made us feel like Oz minus the cyclone.
because, because I don't know why.
it's just because
we were so merry and I remember a Merry Christmas
too in the classroom when a huge card arrived
addressed to us: signed, Dick, Jane and Sally
and Spot and Puff, too (with signature paw prints
shining through
right up our alley)!
and of course, then, I never thought of Scott Foresman.
cemented in my mind like rubber cement at the time, the thought:
of course they were real! I'd seen the proof.
how else could they send a Christmas card under our roof
and it was no surprise they knew us.
we visited every day; eagerly
watched them play and how it almost never
rained on their planet except that once, when Sally came in
with Father's great big green umbrella
and Mother's second best boat shoes
dripping from head to shoe
on the freshly mopped floor...oh adorables!
oh, what a lark. and Spot begins to bark;
their parents laughed at everything they did.
what a great kidland you all lived in.
I never wondered what you would grow up to be
being stuck that way in the sunny parades,
never having the next birthday
while we moved on from Grade to Grade.
one particularly I envied:
where Sally for her birthday
I think got four dolls, each in a dress of almost
every pastel shade, well the main ones anyway
pink, yellow, blue, green
or maybe it was just that the picture showed the possibilities
of that happening in the Ideal Department Store drawing.
well, goodbye.
it's taken me the longest time to reply.
I hope you remember me.
have fun round the Christmas tree
lo, these many years since, you know,
I was supposed to outgrow you.
Ha ha. Happy New Year then.
the same one you're still in.
mary angela douglas 1 october 2017
to the neighborhood with pale green fences perhaps
the hollyhocks spilling over with the sweet peas
unless I've got the flowers mixed up
but you won't mind you'll just say
run spot run, funny Sally and my name's not Sally.
so I'm o.k. even if my little sister thinks I'm weird.
I remember when I was young and so were you
in the picture primers in Grades 1 and 2, perhaps even 3
and then before, in workbooks, I came to know you
when the teacher would say:
little boys and girls
put on your thinking caps today
and we went through the motions
of fastening under our chins
the hats that would keep us focused
how we believed in them
as easily as Santa Claus and the Good Fairy.
you made us feel like Oz minus the cyclone.
because, because I don't know why.
it's just because
we were so merry and I remember a Merry Christmas
too in the classroom when a huge card arrived
addressed to us: signed, Dick, Jane and Sally
and Spot and Puff, too (with signature paw prints
shining through
right up our alley)!
and of course, then, I never thought of Scott Foresman.
cemented in my mind like rubber cement at the time, the thought:
of course they were real! I'd seen the proof.
how else could they send a Christmas card under our roof
and it was no surprise they knew us.
we visited every day; eagerly
watched them play and how it almost never
rained on their planet except that once, when Sally came in
with Father's great big green umbrella
and Mother's second best boat shoes
dripping from head to shoe
on the freshly mopped floor...oh adorables!
oh, what a lark. and Spot begins to bark;
their parents laughed at everything they did.
what a great kidland you all lived in.
I never wondered what you would grow up to be
being stuck that way in the sunny parades,
never having the next birthday
while we moved on from Grade to Grade.
one particularly I envied:
where Sally for her birthday
I think got four dolls, each in a dress of almost
every pastel shade, well the main ones anyway
pink, yellow, blue, green
or maybe it was just that the picture showed the possibilities
of that happening in the Ideal Department Store drawing.
well, goodbye.
it's taken me the longest time to reply.
I hope you remember me.
have fun round the Christmas tree
lo, these many years since, you know,
I was supposed to outgrow you.
Ha ha. Happy New Year then.
the same one you're still in.
mary angela douglas 1 october 2017
