BEN FRANKLIN REMEMBERED

Gutenberg, Tom Edison, and Thomas Crapper, too,
Improved the lives of everyone, and they deserve their due;
But it took Franklin to devise, perhaps the perfect pair:
Bifocals for my grandma’s eyes, and Grandpa’s rocking chair!

A kid at heart, he flew a kite, while lightning flashed and snapped,
Because Ben Franklin felt it might---just like it did---get zapped.

He tried to shock a turkey then, with an electric bolt,
But something went awry and Ben, instead, received the jolt;
Which prompted Ben to wryly put, in words declaring truce,
“I tried to kill a turkey, but I almost cooked my goose!”

Ingenious Ben for comfort strove,
And not for wealth or fame,
When he devised the little stove
That humbly bears his name.

--Helen J. Ewoldsen