Simple Poetry

In honor of National Poetry Month, I will be posting a favorite poem then and again during April. As you might guess, most of them will be works from Theo's early years. However, today I'm going to share a poem by someone else that impressed and surprised me when I first heard it as it still does today.
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I was in sixth grade in Mrs. Greathouse's English class and we were writing poems. I dutifully wrote my totally unmemorable poem that I then read for the class.  I was pleased with what I had written until Jon stood up and read his. Jon was one of those boys who was smart enough, but was always horsing around instead of doing his work. He tried to get away with the least amount of school work that he could. So not surprisingly, he only wrote a few lines. His poem went like this.

The thunder roared,

The lightning flashed,

A tree fell down, 

And a frog got smashed.

Even though the poem was very simple, I was impressed. With only a few words, he told a story that brought very clear images to mind. And it had a surprise ending. I was also impressed because he had spent most of the period goofing off while I slaved away at the assignment. That that was the day, I developed a crush on Jon. The crush didn't last long, but the memory of his poem did.