I went to my bookshelf and pulled up a chair
To study the titles awaiting me there;
But I’d read every book on the bookshelf before
And sometimes I wished I could read something more.
Then Gramps came along, and he said “See, my boy,”
There used to be jillions of books to enjoy;
There were books about jibbers and gobbelor guff
And sniffers and biffers and all kinds of stuff.”
“There was once a great book that went on beyond Z
To places and creatures you don’t often see;
And another great book where a boy like you
Imagined he ran an unusual zoo.”
“And one of a boy who fished in a pool
for fish you can’t find in the typical school;
And a tale of a boy on Mulberry Street
Imagining a story that couldn’t be beat.”
“And one full of questions asked by a cat;
You could learn lots of things if you read books like that;
And one of an omelet of eggs super dooper
Cooked up in a pan, ala Peter T. Hooper.”
“Well, What happened, Gramps? Where did they go? “
I listened intently. I wanted to know;
“Well,” Grandpa answered, “It started at first
With a few little books, but it got worse and worse.”
“I don’t like this book,” said Maisy McGuire
And that’s when the first book went into the fire;
And then Jonny Von Smit threw a book on the pile,
And then went another and after awhile…”
“So many books that had been there before
Were collected and burned and were simply no more;
Maisy collected the books by the ton
For as ashes the books could hurt not even one. ”
“Maisy and others hunted down folks
Who wrote the wrong stories and told the wrong jokes;
She’d work through the day and into the night
In hopes that some day that each one would think right.”
“If you didn’t think right, you might be a wrong-thinker,
And if you were that, well, your life was a stinker;
The right-thinkers lunched in the right-thinkers loft
Where they looked down below on wrong-thinkers and scoffed…”
“And the wrong-thinkers scrounged in the alley for scraps
A half-eaten sandwich or apple perhaps;
The bosses found wrong-thinkers hopelessly lacking,
And gave them their pink slips and sent them off packing”
The wrong-thinkers’ children were banned from the mall
And the Saturday games of fumfugfuzzle ball;
And the club where the cool kids hung out and the zoo
And Mitzi MacDougal’s spring hullabaloo.”
“So everyone’s learned to say just the right things,
Knowing the hardships that wrong-thinking brings;”
Gramps could remember the way things should be
When no one was scared, and people were free.
18 replies on “Seuss and Poetic Injustice”
Seuss and Poetic Justice
(Companion piece to Seuss and Poetic Injustice)
Johnny Von Smit worked long into the night,
Day after day, so the world could be right;
Seeking out books that he thought would offend,
Seeing those books meet their most deserved end.
His work was most noble and won Maisy’s praise;
He knew the procedures and all the best ways
Of protecting the people so no one would hear
Things that would harm them and things they should fear.
For Jonny knew well what was fit for the rest;
He had a true gift and could tell what was best.
He sought out the people who thought the wrong way,
The people who balked and refused to obey J
Jonny made sure the wrong-thinkers were found
And made to wear muzzles and look at the ground;
Jonny was proud of the fruits of his labors,
The generous service he did for his neighbors.
But Jonny was in for some unforeseen stress;
One day all was well, and the next day a mess.
He had just gone to sleep and was starting to snore
When he heard a loud banging upon his front door.
He answered the door and was met by the mob,
And Maisy said, “Jonny, I’m doing my job.
I heard that you said what you ought to have not;
It’s all your own fault, and now this is your lot.”
She ransacked the house, and she went through Jon’s stuff,
But for Maisy such measures were never enough;
She took all Jon’s paper and pencils and pens,
And Jonny saw things through a whole different lens.
And Jonny said “Maisy, I thought we were friends!
I’ve always thought right, Can I just make amends?”
But Maisy said “Jon, you fired, starting now.
You have dared to think things that we can not allow.”
“You are now disinvited to all the best stuff;
You thought the wrong way, now your life will be rough.
We can not allow you to sit at our table
For you’re a wrong-thinker, That is your label.” ”
You won’t play our sports, and you won’t see our shows;
Or eat in our loft, by now everyone knows
That the key to our washroom is strictly reserved
For the right-thinking people for whom it’s deserved.
And Mitzi MacDougal would never permit
A wrong-thinking fellow like Jonny Von Smit
To come to her fabulous hullabaloo;
She has to have standards-What else can she do?”
Jon wanted to warn them, to tell all the people
To stand and fight back, and to stop being sheeple.
But given the chance, Jon had made the wrong choice;
He hadn’t fought back, and he now had no voice.
So Jonny was cancelled while still in his prime;
He had tormented people for such a long time.
And now here he was, helpless and puzzled,
For Jonny, who’d muzzled so many, was muzzled.
Rebecca,
This is wonderful. I shared it with my friends and family, as well. Thank you.
Cheryl Pimentel
Thanks, Cheryl! I have a companion piece when I can figure out how to post it.
This is fantastic!!!
I want to share beyond here; but, I don’t want to claim it as mine nor “out” your privacy without permission.
May I share it on Facebook or elsewhere, and if so, would you like to be credited or should I simply share it with a note such as that it is from an “Anonymous Author” on a “Private Forum”?
Gosh, I’m honored! Thanks, Peter! “Rebecca from Annapolis” would be enough. Anonymous sounds impersonal. Dr. Seuss wrote under several names, so it is fitting.
Will do.
By the way, if you still Facebook you can find it later on my page under my name there (don’t be too surprised if some of my friends end up re-sharing multiple times thereafter). 😉
Post Script:
It’s up.
https://www.facebook.com/cajunpete/posts/10225475119488834
I’m so glad you appreciate my sudden inspiration the other night. And I am concerned about the cancel culture in which we find ourselves. I hope that we will carefully consider the very serious issue illustrated here.
Re: I hope that we will carefully consider the very serious issue illustrated here.
I do too.
Re: I’m so glad you appreciate my sudden inspiration the other night.
I’m not the only one who appreciates it. Look at how it’s been rated here (so far). Also, it has been re-shared about a dozen times in the past two hours (10 “counted” shares and at least one case I spotted where someone did a “copy and paste” share that doesn’t show up in the official count”.
Post Script:
You might enjoy the online graphic I copied/edited/used to accompany your words.
Awesome! I have an art degree. This would be fun to illustrate Dr. Seuss style. Thanks, again.
Question: This is my first post. How do I post a second post? I have a companion piece to this but can’t figure out how to post it. It says “posts” where it said “post” before and takes me to the first post. Thanks.
Sad, but true! 🙁
Well done!
I found a typo. “I’d read,” not “I’d had read..” (Can’t edit like on FB?)
Thanks, Jeremy! I’m not sure this is where to post this, but after writing it late last night, I decided on here.
Nicely done, Rebecca.
You should be able to edit. Under the “Members” drop down should be “My Blog Dashboard” which will pull together your blog post. There should be an edit button towards the right.
Thanks!
“a great book that went on beyond Z”
I want to read it. Well done!