Teach A Child To Read

Dedicated to all my teachers...

Street urchins they were, 

With none for them to care. 

Petty thefts and playing cards 

Kept them from moving forward. 

It indeed seemed their fate 

To remain forever illiterate. 

A Dedicated Teacher saw 

They needed to obey the law..

He did a very good deed 

In teaching them how to read -

Taught 'em in his spare time 

Wiping away their lives' grime. 

It opened up a new world 

Of the wonderful written word.

Reading brought them pleasure, 

Every good book a treasure. 

They opened a small library 

Where members paid a small fee. 

Transformed were their lives, 

They threw away their knives -

So many new roads opened 

When they learned to use a pen. 

He taught children to read...

And changed their lives indeed.