From Read Me a Rhyme, Please!

The Laughing Willow

By Ernestine Cobern Beyer
 

Beside a pool within a wood

A family of willows stood.

They could not rest, they could not sleep;

All they did was weep and weep.

Indeed, they wept, this willow clan,

As they have wept since time began.

Imagine, then, the pain and grief

That shook the willows, root and leaf,

When suddenly beside the pool

The youngest willow broke the rule!

A woodsy laughter, small and thinned,

Fell lightly on the summer wind.

"Weep!" cried all the willow crowd.

"To laugh is simply not allowed!"

But though they showed him what to do,

And gave him Sobbing Lessons, too,

The youngest willow, small and daft,

Just tossed his arms and laughed and laughed!

Many, many thanks
to
Barbara Beyer Malley
for
the okay to post:)