Poem #8 for Poetry Month -- "Childhood Stories"

[nightdog_barks]

From the American writer Matthew Rohrer, a small poem about wonderful things.



Childhood Stories

They learned to turn off the gravity in an auditorium
and we all rose into the air,
the same room where they demonstrated
pow-wows and prestidigitation.

But not everyone believed it.
That was the most important lesson
I learned -- that a truck driven by a dog
could roll down a hill at dusk
and roll right off a dock into a lake
and sink, and if no one believes you
then what is the point
of telling them wonderful things?

I walked home from the pow-wow
on an early winter night in amazement:
they let me buy the toy tomahawk!
As soon as I got home I was going
to hit my sister with it, but I didn’t know this.


~ Matthew Rohrer
From Satellite, Wave Books, 2001
Online source here.

Comments

[silverjackal]

Heh. What else is a toy tomahawk for, I ask? :D

[blackmare]

I like this a lot.

[nightdog_barks]

It really made me smile when I first read it.

*g*

[takes_a_fairy]

*prestidigitation*
I couldn't recall what that meant, until I looked it up just now. Lol

It's also the single word that doesn't seem to belong in this poem.
The rest of the vocabulary in this poem is plain language that kids would know, easily.
Makes me think of the times I used to screw up my art compositions by leaving a glaringly unwanted focal point. Lol
That's not to say I dislike this poem, however. It reminds of the times I beat up a few of the neighborhood boys: not all at once, mind you, but I did. hee