CHILDREN

The dog Ate My Homework

The dog ate my homework,
my granny shrunk my PE kit,
my brother stole my timetable
and my teacher doesn’t believe a word of it.

He says I’m lazy,
I drive him crazy,
Threatens me with punishments I can’t even understand,
Sends me to the office with a report card in my hand,
Talks about detention and then about exclusion,
Tells me how I must be suffering from some kind of delusion.

Maybe I should avoid the truth,
And let my imagination play,
see how good I am at lying
I’ll practice everyday.
I’ll log every flying saucer that navigates my mind,
I’ll go into every search engine to see what I can find,
I’ll develop such a knowledge of everything obscure
They’ll either have to reward me
or send me for a cure.

But the dog has still eaten my homework
and
my granny has still shrunk my PE kit
and
my brother has still stolen my timetable
and
my teacher still doesn’t believe a word of it.

From John Row's book of poems for children, "The Pong Machine"
Available direct from John Row £4.00 including P+P