Poem from The Perks of Being A Wallflower Novel
Once on a yellow piece
of paper with green lines
he wrote a poem
And he called it
"Chops"
because that was the name of his dog
And that's what it was
all about
And his teacher gave him
an A
and a gold star
And his mother hung it
on the kitchen door
and read it to his aunts
That was the year Father
Tracy
took all the kids to the zoo
And he let them sing on
the bus
And his little sister
was born
with tiny toenails and no hair
And his mother and
father kissed a lot
And the girl around the
corner sent him a
Valentine signed with a
row of X's
and he had to ask his father what the X's meant
And his father always
tucked him in bed at night
And was always there to
do it
Once on a piece of white
paper with blue lines
he wrote a poem
And he called it
"Autumn"
because that was the name of the season
And that's what it was
all about
And his teacher gave him
an A
and asked him to write more clearly
And his mother never
hung it on the kitchen door
because of its new paint
And the kids told him
that Father Tracy smoked cigars
And left butts on the
pews
And sometimes they would
burn holes
That was the year his
sister got glasses
with thick lenses and black frames
And the girl around the
corner laughed
when he asked her to go see Santa Claus
And the kids told him
why
his mother and father kissed a lot
And his father never
tucked him in bed at night
And his father got mad
when he cried for him to do it.
Once on a paper torn from
his notebook
he wrote a poem
And he called it
"Innocence: A Question"
because that was the question about his girl
And that's what it was
all about
And his professor gave
him an A
and a strange steady look
And his mother never
hung it on the kitchen door
because he never showed her
That was the year that
Father Tracy died
And he forgot how the
end
of the Apostle's Creed went
And he caught his sister
making out on the back porch
And his mother and
father never kissed
or even talked
And the girl around the
corner
wore too much makeup
That made him cough when
he kissed her
but he kissed her anyway
because that was the thing to do
And at three a.m. he
tucked himself into bed
his father snoring soundly
That's why on the back
of a brown paper bag
he tried another poem
And he called it
"Absolutely Nothing"
Because that's what it
was really all about
And he gave himself an A
and a slash on each damned wrist
And he hung it on the
bathroom door
because this time he didn't think
he could reach the kitchen.
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