Grace Mann's Summer Reading Poem

Okay, I finished the poem for the little ones, only it turns out to be more about little ones than for them - a little preposition trouble there. I blame my collegiate vocabulary.
Now don't be criticizin' me for mah funny accent, but do feel free to give me some constructive criticism, as this IS a rough draft.

A Little Light Reading

 

Sally shuffles toward the desk

Her arms severely laden

“Hey mom,” she shouts above the tomes,

“I thought we’s goin’ wadin’!”

 

I swam through books, young Sally thought.

No wading expedition

Can prep a girl for college soon

Or teachers’ inquisition.

 

Besides, she sighed, I like this pool.

Outside is so darn roastin’.

I’d rather lay inside all day

Than hear my skin a-toastin’.

 

“You comin’ mom?” she calls again.

Six Librarians all hush her.

But mom has been a-swimmin’ too.

No sense to go and rush her.

 

Sally tips her load of books

Upon the desk above her

“My momma’s got the lib’ry card,”

she shouts to hands that hover.

 

“I’m takin’ these ones home with me,”

She grins and thinks of water.

’Cause in the Summer what I love

is slidin’ like a otter.

 

From book to book, like pole to pole

I’m swimmin’ in the shade

While all around the grown-up folks

Is wishin’ for a wade.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Joy in the Ugly Process

Image
 Today I sat on a panel of colleagues at a "Meet the Professor" activity hosted by the English student committee. It was awesome! Such bright and interested English majors. Meanwhile, I was sitting there, a middle-aged woman, on a panel of people who had "arrived." They had reached their destination. Each of them took a moment and explained how they had succeeded, how they had found acceptance. Even those who had detoured through other paths before they got what they wanted described those detours as some kind of success: some successfully raised families, some had other jobs, etc. Some were convinced that it was because of a particular habit or capability. For several minutes, I just sat there feeling horrible, right in the middle of this impressive panel. I should have stayed silent. Blerg. I can't stay silent. I'm not that wise. So I added my two cents: I explained that I would tell them something the others would not: that sometimes you don't arrive,...
Read more

High and Low Horses

 I have not blogged in a LONG TIME and I'm so rusty.  Politics these days, amirite? My little brother pissed me off a few weeks ago in the throes of a political kerfuffle (not reasoned enough to be an argument by either definition). He accused me of posing - I don't remember exactly what he called it, but it was something like "virtue signaling." And very, very rapidly, I was trapped. I could not even attempt to do the right thing without knowing that I was doing exactly what he had just sneered at. I suppose I could go back and carefully analyze the rhetoric of the conversation and delicately unravel exactly what was happening. I am capable of that kind of analysis, but this is a blog, not a school paper, and I'm more interested in the abstractions at play. I'm always more interested in the abstractions. Let's imagine that you have a stick figure in a two-dimensional world. I'd draw it and upload it for you, but somebody stole my reMarkable. Stick fig...
Read more

The Guilt-Edged Life

Folk philosophers and self-help "experts" (seriously: what kind of person claims to be an expert in living somebody else's life!? I mean, BESIDES me) have hypothesized about the negative emotions that we struggle with when we become painfully aware of our own flawed natures. In my own experience, I can identify three, and this year, I'm going to deal with each of them differently than I have before. 1) Shame. Shame is that mortification and humiliation I feel when I see my flaws through somebody else's eyes: a symptom of valuing their opinion above its worth. I want to learn how to put negative feedback - verbal and nonverbal - into context, subordinate to what I know is true about me, the world, and God. And I want to distinguish between my actions and my identity. I can be mistaken, but I am NOT a mistake. I am Batman, but that doesn't mean I accept all the pop-philosophy of the Christopher Nolan films. 2) Guilt. Guilt is the puritanical conviction that I ha...
Read more