Waiting at the Window
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Posted by Colleen Preston May 16, 2006 |
It has been raining here in this part of the New England area like you wouldn't believe. Day in and day out. Relentlessly. Rivers are flooding the streets, gushing into places they have never gushed before. Weather records are being shattered. Meteorologists are uniformly out-of-breath and hyperactive. There are school closings, ruined cars, flooded homes, and serious cabin fever. Grim bad humor abounds.
So, what better time to retreat into the warm, sappy, happy world of A.A. Milne, creator of Winnie-the-Pooh, and whimsical poet laureate of so many childhoods? Here, from Milne's 1924 "When We Were Very Young, is an uplifting little ditty for all you sad and sodden New Englanders:
WAITING AT THE WINDOW
by A.A. Milne
These are my two drops of rain
Waiting on the window-pane.
I am waiting here to see
Which the winning one will be.
Both of them have different names.
One is John and one is James.
All the best and all the worst
Comes from which of them is first.
James has just begun to ooze.
He's the one I want to lose.
John is waiting to begin.
He's the one I want to win.
James is going slowly on.
Something sort of sticks to John.
John is moving off at last.
James is going pretty fast.
John is rushing down the pane.
James is going slow again.
James has met a sort of smear.
John is getting very near.
Is he going fast enough?
(James has found a piece of fluff.)
John has quickly hurried by.
(James was talking to a fly.)
John is there, and John has won!
Look! I told you! Here's the sun!