I found this unattributed poem among my dad’s papers after he passed away. Since my parents lived in Arizona for just over 35 years after Dad retired, I don’t think he minded the heat.
Major apologies here!! I tried and tried to get this poem to format the way I painstakingly entered it into my post as verses of four lines lined up the way you would do for a poem. But WordPress refuses to let me do it, I don’t know what else to try, and I have life going on and no more time to spend trying to massage it into what should easily copy from my Word document to WP. So please excuse the way it looks and just enjoy the poem.
The devil wanted a place on earth, Sort of a summer home. A place to spend his vacation Whenever he wanted to roam.
So he picked out Arizona, A place both wretched and rough, Where the climate was to his liking And the cowboys hardened and tough.
He dried up the streams in the canyons And ordered no rain to fall. He dried up the lakes in the valleys, Then baked and scorched it all.
Then over his barren desert He transplanted shrubs from hell, The cactus, thistle, and prickly pear. The climate suited them well.
Now the home was much to his liking. But animal life, he had none. So he created crawling creatures That all mankind would shun.
First he made the rattlesnake With its forked poisonous tongue, Taught it to strike and rattle And how to swallow its young.
The he made scorpions and lizards And the ugly old horned toad. He placed spiders of every description Under rocks by the side of the road.
Then he ordered the sun to shine hot, Hotter and hotter still, Until even the cactus wilted And the old horned toad looked ill.
Then he gazed on his earthly kingdom As any creator would. He chuckled a little up his sleeve And admitted that it was good.
‘Twas summer now and Satan lay By a prickly pear to rest. The sweat rolled off his swarthy brow So he took off his coat and vest.
“By golly,” he finally panted, “I did my job too well, “I’m going back where I came from. “Arizona is hotter than hell.”
This, that and the other thing 
Thanks for persevering, Janet. Good old WordPress! The poem made me smile.
Absolutely
Me too, Jo. There’s more than a little truth in it as well.
🤗💗
Oh, what a fun poem!
I laughed when I first read it.
😊
What a fun poem! All those descriptions sound like where I live here in TX, at least in the summer. haha 🙂
Yes, the summers are rather warm, aren’t they? And here summer lasts about five or more ! 😁
It sure seems that way! 🙂
Good one.
Try using shift+enter at the end of each line to form the next line
I’ll give it a try, Brian. Thanks.
LOL! That’s hot! It’s a fun poem and pretty close to accurate.
At least in summer. 😉
😃
That’s pretty funny!
It is. 🙂
Good poem, but it brings up the question, will you and your hubby stay there permanently? Not really my business, but the poem just made me ask. 🙂
Not completely sure but for the foreseeable future I’d say yes.
Great poem, sorry for laughing at your situation, but you made it fun.
Do you think this is something you get used to?
To some extent. But when it gets over 105 or 110, it’s just HOT, dry heat or not. I thought the poem was pretty funny.
I’m not sweating from the heat but I have drops on my face from laughing!
It’s a good one, isn’t it? I was laugh too.
One more reason for being grateful that I live in a temperate zone.
That’s why we have quite a few people who are in Arizona in the winter and go back home/north in the summer. Snowbirds is their name.
I love that poem, Janet! Wonderful… and why we never stayed in Arizona past April. >grin<
I get that, John!
Janet – this poem is amazing – and needed to be shared.
wow – talented – and I see the poetry skills run in the family
—
and did you say he lived 35 years after retirement – danggggg – don’t most people live 15 to 20?
Dad didn’t write the poem. I don’t t know who did. He just had a copy in his papers to enjoy.
Yes, he retired at 55 and passed away in his early 90’s. He and Mom were very blessed.
Oh I thought he wrote it
And blessed indeed
I can’t judge, if the author is/was right, because I’ve never met the devil and neither visited Arizona nor hell. But I like the writing style and how she described everything. Thanks for sharing, Janet!
Glad you enjoyed it, André. It does get pretty hot in summer but hopefully it that hot! 😁
😁 fortunately not here
Wow
😁
Neat poem!
Perhaps your father wrote it?
No, he didn’t write it. At the bottom, it says contributed by some woman, so I don’t know if she wrote it or just shared it with whatever the place was he copied it from.