Jenna chose a Shel Silverstein poem as her favorite:
Smart
by Shel Silverstein
My dad gave me one dollar bill
'Cause I'm his smartest son,
And I swapped it for two shiny quarters
'Cause two is more than one!
And then I took the quarters
And traded them to Lou
For three dimes -- I guess he don't know
That three is more than two!
Just then, along came old blind Bates
And just 'cause he can't see
He gave me four nickels for my three dimes,
And four is more than three!
And I took the nickels to Hiram Coombs
Down at the seed-feed store,
And the fool gave me five pennies four them,
And five is more than four!
And then I went and showed my dad,
And he got red in the cheeks
And closed his eyes and shook his head --
Too proud of me to speak!
This poem originally appeared in Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends collection. Good life lessons from Shel Silverstein!
This one makes me laugh, not only because of the "bad math" but because I can relate, unfortunately, to such misreading of social cues, like thinking his dad is so proud of him when clearly the father is ashamed to have such a fool for a son!
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