There once a boy who wrote a poem...

Currently reading this book, I know what you think, it’s a book for teenagers and it is! But nonetheless I enjoy reading it and there’s this one poem in the book which really gripped me. It struck a cord in my heart, which doesn’t happen a lot so I thought I’d share it with you.

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. 

I could re-read this a number of times and it will still break my heart. :(

jCel