Paula Granja

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 agold 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 wasborn 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'smeant 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 nameof 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 thekids 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 girlaround 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 madwhen 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 allabout 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
forgothow 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...