Out Like a Lamb

Grade Four

I wrote all kinds of stories on its onion skin pages
so it went worn & floppy quickly, this prize I'd won
that time my final book report got the highest grade.

The entire class was less than envious (after all
it was a dopey dictionary - not candy, extra recess,
or something really worthy of all the writing work)

but for me it was the means to place my everything
told thru code & marked with feathers, folded notes,
and Fruit Stripe wrappers still suffused with scent;

I filed moods in alphabetical order, so S for scared
when the arguments crescendoed into screaming
& Q for question: Will my father move, at last, away?

I should have studied it, learned every word within
but instead I colored, journaled, quizzed & scribbled -
pronunciations of protests I could never quite define.



note ▼

April 20—Book report—subtly (or overtly) incorporate a book report or response into a poem about something else. (If you name the book, avoid spoilers!)

I know I didn't follow the prompt precisely, but this is where it went.