When Aunt Selina comes to tea
She always makes them send for me,
And I must be polite and clean
And seldom heard, but always seen.
I must sit stiffly in my chair
As long as Aunt Selina's there.

But there are certain things I would
Ask Aunt Selina if I could.
I'd ask when she was small, like me,
If she had ever climbed a tree.
Or if she'd ever, ever gone
Without her shoes and stockings on
Where lovely puddles lay in rows
To let the mud squeege through her toes.
Of if she'd coasted on a sled,
Or learned to stand upon her head
And wave her feet — and after that
I'd ask her how she got so fat.
These things I'd like to ask, and then —
I hope she would not come again!


This poem is in the public domain.