Once on a yellow piece of
paper with green lines
he wrote a poem
And he called it “Chops”
because
that was the name of his dog
And
that’s what it was all about
And his
teacher gave him an A
and a gold
star
And his
mother hung it on the kitchen door
and read
it to his aunts
That was
the year Father Tracy
took all
the kids to the zoo
And he let
them sing on the bus
And his
little sister was born
with tiny
toenails and no hair
And his
mother and father kissed a lot
And the
girl around the corner sent him a
Valentine
signed with a row of X’s
and he had
to ask his father what the X’s meant
And his
father always tucked him in bed at night
And was
always there to do it
Once on a
piece of white paper with blue lines
he wrote a poem
And he called it “Autumn”
because
that was the name of the season
And
that’s what it was all about
And his
teacher gave him an A
and asked
him to write more clearly
And his
mother never hung it on the kitchen door
because of
its new paint
And the
kids told him
that
Father Tracy smoked cigars
And left
butts on the pews
And
sometimes they would burn holes
That was
the year his sister got glasses
with thick
lenses and black frames
And the
girl around the corner laughed
when he
asked her to go see Santa Claus
And the
kids told him why
his mother
and father kissed a lot
And his
father never tucked him in bed at night
And his
father got mad
when he
cried for him to do it.
Once on a
paper torn from his notebook
he wrote a poem
And he called it “Innocence: A Question”
because that was the question about his girl
And that’s what it was all about
And his professor gave him an A
and a strange steady look
And his mother never hung it on the kitchen door
because he never showed her
That was the year that Father Tracy died
And he forgot how the end
of the Apostle’s Creed went
And he caught his sister
making out on the back porch
And his mother and father never kissed
or even talked
And the girl around the corner
wore too much makeup
That made him cough when he kissed her
but he kissed her anyway
because that was the thing to do
And at three a.m. he tucked himself into bed
his father snoring soundly
That’s why on the
back of a brown paper bag
he tried another poem
And he called it “Absolutely Nothing”
Because that’s what it was really all about
And he gave himself an A
and a slash on each damned wrist
And he hung it on the bathroom door
because this time he didn’t think
he could reach the kitchen.
13 faves · 1 comments · Feb 13, 2013 10:27pm
lemon.cake* · 1 decade ago
The only raeson i watched it was becuase loagn lerman was in it. then the movie and book was really amzing.
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