Life's a. B. C by Ruth Collie

Do you remember how we used to say the A. B. C. when we were very / young? We stood in semi-circular array, and proved a nimbleness of / brain and tongue! 'Twas "A. B. C. " right to the final "Z," we chanted / in a wailing minor key. One little blue-eyed girl with curly head / always stopped short each time she reached the "D. " But patient / teacher, smiling, put her right. Then on she'd go quite blithely to / the end. And some who were exceptionally bright, from "Z" to "A" the / backward trail could wend! But now, we often find Life goes awry. / Its "A. B. C. " is very hard to learn. Letters refuse, no matter how we / try, to follow smoothly, each in proper turn. 'Tis then, like / children of the long-ago, we ask the Teacher, watching patiently, if / He will help us so that we may know the way to read Life's puzzling / A. B. C.