Betsy Franco - Me and Joe Lining Up After Recess

Me and Joe Lining Up After Recess
by
Betsy Franco

We race
for the front

   bunch up
      and bump,
           wiggle,
                 giggle,
          push,
      pull,
           trip,
                 tease,
                       jab,
                           grab,
                 poke,
           pinch,
   squish,
squeeze.

Then teacher gives the quiet sign.
Says,
"You two go to the end of the line!"

© 2009 Betsy Franco. All rights reserved.
from the upcoming Messing Around on the Monkey Bars, and other school poems for two voices

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Betsy Franco writes poetry and picture books, has her first young adult novel coming out this fall, and has also edited collections of teenagers' poems (the most recent of which, Falling Hard: 100 Love Poems by Teenagers just got a great writeup in the New York Times). She shares my love of math and does amazing work combining it with poetry in books like Mathematickles.

And somehow while doing all that she had the time to come hang out and observe the same class I did one recent morning, as she captured perfectly exactly what I saw as the kids lined up! OK, Betsy Franco wasn't really there, but when I read this poem, I couldn't imagine an elementary school student (or teacher!) who wouldn't also smile with recognition... and maybe, without even realizing it, "get" that poetry is pretty darn good stuff, indeed. I'm very much looking forward to the entire Messing Around on the Monkey Bars collection, and I'm incredibly happy to have a sneak peak of it here as part of 30 Poets/30 Days.

Yesterday brought us I Dreamt I Saw a Dinosaur by Mary Ann Hoberman. Tomorrow...

200 Typing Monkeys
Almost Make It

by Emily Dickinson and Jon Scieszka.

Would I make that up? Of course not!