The government of April?

In a few days, it will be April and the cherry trees will bloom around the Tidal Basin in our nation's capital. My boyhood Sunday School teacher was a poet, and when he read an unusual comment in a New York newspaper, it inspired him to write a poem called "The Government of April." Here's the comment he found, and his response.

Sherpa Tensing, scaler of Mt. Everest, was born in April, and is domiciled in India. The government of both of these countries must therefore be consulted in matters concerning him.

"The Government of April" -- oh, what a lovely name!

The conferences of nations will be no more the same

with April at the table to bring smiles to every face

and touch to tears the steely heart with speech of lissom grace.

The Prime Minister of April, is, of course, a lady fair

with violets in her corsage and cowslips in her hair.

Her dress is sprigged with bluebells from some scented primrose wood,

and she speaks a springtime language by all men understood.

The Government of April commands neither planes nor guns

but deploys a cosmic battery of thirty shimmering suns

and thirty starry evenings and thirty soft night skies,

with March and May on either flank to guard them from surprise.

What is its constitution? I find that hard to tell.

It has a King and Queen I'm sure and a President as well.

But which one has the final word no one will ever know;

they settled all their differences a billion years ago.