Mercy rhyme

Bethany, the sweetest and most vivacious of Archer’s many sweet, vivacious preschool teachers, was in a terrible car accident near Salt Lake City over the holidays and has been in the hospital for months, recovering slowly but steadily. I’m happy to report that she’s no longer in intensive care, where she spent a very long time; but the road ahead for her is still, alas, a long one.

We are sending our love in the direction of Utah, hoping that the rest of her recovery will be speedy and complete. To help focus our love beams on their intended target, we also recently sent in the direction of Utah a love-beam receiver — in the form of a box of goodies and a card “from Archer” with the following poem.

We love and miss our friend Bethany
So we wrote this poem for Bethany
We said, “Let us send something to Bethany
That will bring a big smile to Bethany.”

A poem’s what we chose to send Bethany
But at once we ran into a Bethany
Problem: no words rhyme with Bethany
Except for her own name (“Bethany”)

It’s easy to come close to “Bethany”
With near-rhymes like aborigine
And names such as Anthony, Stephanie
But these do not bear too much scrutiny

So come back to us soon, please, Bethany
For as much fun as it is to rhyme “Bethany”
It’s much better to say, “Hello Bethany”
In person to our dear friend Bethany.