February Twenty-Ninth

February Twenty-ninth (published 4:11 AM) By Franklin Price 02/29/2020 February twenty-ninth Comes by but every four I write this poem to tell you Why it doesn't come by more The Earth rotates around the Sun I would like to make that clear To return to where it started Its travel takes about a year Rotating on its axis, The Earth makes night and day Three-sixty-five of them occur To make the year along the way However, there's an issue With this daily keeping score The travel takes a little longer So we adjust it every four We add a day to leap ahead So we don't get behind I hope I've not confused you Is this too heavy for your mind? To make it easy to determine The years with one day more Use the math you learned when young And divide the years by four When your math is finished, With no remainder there to see Those years will have the extra day Now I'm confusing even me Now I'll throw in one more thing When the century comes in play The first year with the zeroes Does not get the extra day I wrote this in early morning Of the day that makes the leap No good reason why I did it Now I'm going back to sleep