Poetry

1
Poetry

• Fiction Novels in Verse

2
Characteristics of Poetry Novels

• Characterization
• Plot
• Setting
• Theme
• Point of View
• Fictional
• Figurative language and imagery
• Free verse

3
Aleutian Sparrow

• Burial
• Jagged as a broken comb,
• We stand around the raw earth, with its
• Unblinking eye staring up into our dark faces.
• We chant as the body is lowered.
• A sudden slant of sunlight breaks through and
  rests its warm
• Palm on our heads.

4
Locomotion

• Mama
• Some days, like today
• And yesterday and probably
• Tomorrow-all my missing gets jumbled up inside of
  me.
• You know honeysuckle talc powder?
• Mama used to smell like that. She told me
• Honeysuckles really a flower but all I know
• Is the powder that smells like Mama.
• Sometimes when the missing gets real bad
• I go to the drugstore and before the guard starts
• Following me around like Im gonna steal
  something
• I go to the cosmetics lady and ask her if she has
  it.
• When she says yeah, I say
• Can I smell it to see if its the right one?
• Even though the cosmetics ladies roll their eyes
  at me
• They let me smell it.

5

• And for those few seconds, Mamas alive
• Again.
• And Im remembering
• All of the good things about her like
• The way she laughed at my jokes
• Even when they were dumb
• And the way she sometimes just grabbed me
• And hugged me before
• I had a chance to get away.
• And the way her voice always sounded good
• And bad at the same time when she was singing
• in the shower.
• And her red pocketbook that always had some
• Tangerine Life Savers inside it for me and Lili
• No, I say to the cosmetics lady. Its not the
  right one.
• And then I leave fast.
• Before somebody asks to check my pockets
• Which are always empty cause I dont steal.

6
Shakespeare Bats Cleanup

• Moms Car
• I washed my uniform for Saturday because
• it had been folded up for weeks, and I
• Wanted to look good even if I wasnt
• going to play.
• The laundry rooms right next to the
• garage, so I couldnt help but see it Moms
• Buick with 32K miles on the odometer.
• Dad says its mine when Im sixteen.
• I dont know.
• Right after she died, Id go out there
• sometimes and just sit in it.
• It smelled like her. There was this Kleenex
• wadded up in the ashtray. A pen she liked.
• Id put my hands on the wheel where hers
• had been. Turn on the radio and listen
• lo her stations.
• look in the rearview mirror that might
• remember her eyes.

7
Who Killed Mr. Chippendale?

• The Note
• Dear Ms. Falcone,
• I dont know what you are doing.
• I dont know what you are trying to prove.
• I only know you should leave Mr. Chippendale
  alone.
• Let him be forgotten, and me remembered.
• Hes not that important I am.
• Hey, you want to know somethin?
• There are other people I can pick off,
• If I have a mind to.
• Its really an arcade game,
• The one where you hold a rifle
• And shoot a moving mechanical bear.
• If you hit him, he rears up on his hind legs
• And you get points.
• I dont know if the game is still around,
• But my father used to take me to the carnival
• When I was five or six.
• I tried to shoot at the bear and missed.

8

• Rosina Robles
• In my home country,
• When the teacher walk into the room,
• We all stand up and say, Good morning, sir.
• In this country,
• When the teacher walks into the room,
• We all turn in our seats and continue talking.
• In my home country,
• Whole villages would collect school fees
• For the brightest boys.
• Because I was neither the brightest nor a boy,
• Mama and I left our home country
• To look for a job for her
• And a good school for me.
• Do not American students realize how lucky they
  are?
• In my home country only the rich usually boys
• Get into the finest schools.
• In this country learning costs little for boys
  and girls.

9
Jump Ball

• Dennis Carleton
• When I was five,
• Myh father put up a basketball hoop
• On a telephone pole outside our apartment.
• I practiced hard to be my fathers son,
• But all I learned was
• Asphalt shimmers in the summer heat
• And fingers sting in the winters half light.
• I know I am not good enough
• To play varsity ball, but
• My father insists I try out for the Tigers
  anyway.
• I know my shots will miss
• Even before they fall off the rim.
• Iknow Illl be cut
• Even before the coach calls, Next!
• Somewhere,
• Between the ball and the backboard,
• Between the paint and the perimeter,
• I know Ill let my father down.

10
After the Death of Anna Gonzales

• Lauren Reynolds
• Since September,
• I sat one seat behind Anna in Algebra
• Passed papers to her every day.
• Studied for tons of tests together.
• Though it often seemed impossible,
• Eventually,
• We always found the unknown X.
• But not this time.
• This equation
• Bounces against my brain.
• And sneers at all attempted answers.
• I know Ill re-examine the variables,
• And reanalyze the unknowns, maybe forever.
• But it wont matter.
• Because, Anna-
• I know Ill never figure out Y.
• Y you didnt want to live-
• And Y I never noticed.

11
Love That Dog

• April 26
• Sometimes
• When you are trying
• Not to think about something
• It keeps popping back
• Into your head
• You cant help it
• You think about it
• And think about it
• And
• Think about it
• Until your brain
• Feels like
• A squashed pea.

12
Out of the Dust

• Homeward Bound
• Getting away,
• It wasnt any better.
• Just different.
• And lonely.
• Lonelier than the wind.
• Emptier than the sky.
• More silent than the dust,
• Piled in drifts between me
• And my
• Father.
• August 1935

13
What My Mother Doesnt Know

• Tears
• Usually
• I can feel them coming,
• Feel them swirling in my chest
• Like a swarm of angry bees,
• Buzzing up through my neck
• And filling my head
• Till it feels like a balloon
• Getting ready to burst.
• Usually
• Theres time to at least try to stop them
• Before they sting out through my eyes
• And slip down my cheeks like hot wax.
• But not this time.