Statements of Fact (about our 50 states)

(The poem that started this project)

The group of states that constitute our whole United States

Started small, but over time became so very great.

In 1787 the first state came along;

Two and a half years later we were thirteen members strong.

The smallest gap between two states? You may be quite amazed!

The Pennsylvanians waited only five short days.

There was a forty-seven year long space between two states –

The forty-eighth and forty-ninth, a lengthy time to wait!

Two states joined up together, and they cared not one iota

That they shared the same state birthday – they were North & South Dakota.

A total of one hundred and seventy two years passed

Between the first to ratify until the very last.

Our country is composed of lands whose features are diverse,

From deserts, plains, and mountains, sometimes tricky to traverse.

We’ve oceans, rivers, lakes, volcanoes, glaciers to view;

Land-locked states and islands and peninsulas, too.

The size and shape of each of the original thirteen

Were formed by charters, some mistakes, and rivers so serene.

Congress then determined that the rest should have more order,

And set some rules that would impose on them specific borders.

Texas would fit twice inside Alaska’s spacious lines,

But tiniest Rhode Island fills it four hundred twenty nine times.

The pages that will follow will teach you many things

About our fifty states and the uniqueness that each brings.

© Liz Kimmel