Chatham Road Bus Stop

Joey, 1^st grade.

Little hand in mine.

So fragile, yet strong.

Wearing his black Nike jacket,

with red letter on the sleeves.

Carries a Ziploc bag of Captain Crunch

for the walk.

“Look both ways before you cross,”

I remind him.

He does and then we’re there.

I chat with parents,

As he blends into the sea of other kids.

Oblivious to my presence except

for a brief second,

when he rushes over to

press the empty cereal bag into my hand,

then scurries back to his friends:

Cal, Lily, John.

When the big yellow bus rounds the corner,

I see that he doesn’t look back,

even once.

Soon, he climbs aboard

and is gone.

 

Note: I “found” this poem when I recently paged through some old journals.  “Found” poems are always a nice surprise, yet this is not something that I have focused on much with my students.  

Have you ever taught your students the strategy of looking back through old journals/pieces of writing to find the elements of poetry?