Poetry Friday

One of my students rushed into our classroom earlier this week, a huge smile on her face.  She raced over to my desk and announced that she had awesome news to tell me.  

“Last night I was reading and the doorbell rang.  My mom made me get it, and I was so annoyed at her.  So I opened the door and my brother’s girlfriend was on the porch with a weird look on her face.  She kept smiling and the looking around.  I was about to ask her what she was doing at my house when my brother stepped onto the porch!  He surprised us and got to come home for a few days!”

The smile on her face could have lit up the room.  Her brother, her best friend, has been away at boot camp since last year.  She hasn’t seen him in months.  And he ships out in a couple of months.  Showing up to surprise her made this the best week of her life, she told me.

When I read this poem on Poem in Your Pocket Day, I immediately thought of my student.  She misses and worries about her brother every single day, and this poem captures that feeling so well.

MISSING
By Cynthia Cotten

My brother is a soldier

in a hot, dry,

sandy place.

He’s missing –

missing things like

baseball, barbecues,

fishing, French fries,

chocolate sodas,

flame-red maple trees,

blue jays,

and snow.

I’m missing, too –

missing

his read-out-loud voice,

his super-special

banana pancakes,

his scuffed up shoes

by the back door,

his big-bear

good night

hug.

There are people

with guns

in that land of sand

who want to shoot

my brother.

I hope

they miss him,

too.

AMERICA AT WAR POEMS Selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins Text copyright © 2008