My Friend Freda

- for my friend Freda -

Here is a little present for my friend Freda.

Her last name is Wang – that’s Chinese for King.

I hope that someday the whole world gets to meet her.

I didn’t wrap it up – I had no box, no string.

I wish it were a song, but I can’t sing.

This poem is for her to put on her bedroom wall.

When she finishes it she can open the sky,

for that is the very best poem of all:

The sun is a giant’s mouth and the moon his eye,

the clouds are his pillows hung high over the sea,

and all the stars are buttons on his coat.

I hope that when she grows up she won’t forget me.

For this reason, you see – for this reason, I wrote

this strange little poem for my friend Freda.

She knows who I am – her old friend Andy Teacher.

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