In third grade I entered a “book” in the
town-wide hobby show a collection of
short bits mostly animal subjects, won
a prize no other contestants of any age;
in 4th grade ditto though “Bumpy and
Billy Bones” had chapters; dog heroes
having farm adventures we were not
allowed; come 5th grade my book was
a continued oz-like story, kids visiting
strange countries in the clouds the best
character their guide, a bird “Talka”
but now I skipped the town hobby comp
– an editor friend of my mom liked my
mess, ran it weekly in the Galesburg Post
for five months: my kids crashed to earth
when printed word caught up to penciled
I’ve refused deadlines ever since except
of course these IT poems (btw, I wrote
no more till college: 6th grade comp
class taught us we had to know what
we were writing before we wrote it
2022 Jacqueline Jackson
This article appears in Rent victims.
