"My poem tells my feelings, too," she said, "and it's a shortie, so I memorized it and I don't need to read it from the paper. But..." Gooney Bird looked around. "Could some of you come up and stand here with me while I say it?"
"Why?" asked Chelsea. "Are you scared?"
"I am never scared," Gooney Bird replied.
"Embarrathed?" asked Felicia Ann.
"I am never embarrassed," Gooney Bird said.
"Why do you need us, then?" asked Keiko.
"Because you are part of my poem. Sometimes a poem is more than just words."
"Well, I'll be a part of Gooney Bird's poem," Mrs. Pidgeon announced. "It would be an honor." She went and stood beside Gooney Bird at the front of the room.
"Me, too!" said Beanie.
"And me!"
"I want to, too!"
One by one the children got up from their desks and went to stand in increasingly long lines on both sides of Gooney Bird Greene. The lines made their way around the border of the room, past the hamster cage, past the art display, past the large calendar on the wall.
"We're a thircle!" Felicia Ann pointed out.
"Now," Gooney Bird instructed, "hold hands, everyone!"
She removed her fingerless gloves and took the hand of Mrs. Pidgeon on one side and Malcolm on the other. Around the circle every child reached out and held hands on both a sides.
Gooney Bird looked around. "Okay," she said, when they were all arranged. "Here's my poem." In a firm, clear voice, she recited:
Child
by Gooney Bird Greene
I'm an only.
But not lonely.
4.
"You promised funny today, Mrs. Pidgeon! You said we could do funny poems!" Ben said.
"I did indeed," Mrs. Pidgeon told the class. "Humorous poems today." She went to the board and wrote a word: LIMERICK.
Just then there was a knock on the classroom door. It opened, and Mr. Leroy, the principal, came in. Today he was wearing his chess-game tie, with little knights and pawns and other chess pieces on it in a pattern. "Just visiting," he said with a smile. "Got room for me?"
Mrs. Pidgeon, still standing at the board, pulled her chair away from her desk and gestured to Mr. Leroy. "Oh good," he said as he sat down in the teacher's chair. "Thank you. I don't mind sitting at a child's desk, but my knees are always stiff afterward."
"Class, shall we tell Mr. Leroy what we're studying?"
"Poetry!" the second-graders said loudly, all together.
Mr. Leroy made a face. "I was hoping you'd be studying volcanoes. I'm afraid poetry might be booorring."
The children were silent for a moment. So was Mrs. Pidgeon. Then Gooney Bird stood at her seat. Today she was wearing a fringed cowboy vest over her denim overalls. Gooney Bird put her hands on her hips. "Mr. Leroy," she said, "I am shocked that you would say that!"
"Yeth!" Felicia Ann said. "Me, too!"
"So," Mr. Leroy said, "poetry isn't boring?"
"No!" the entire class said.
"It's hard, though," Tyrone pointed out. "You gotta work hard to get it right. Every word gotta be right."
"You have to learn about couplets and stuff," Ben said.
"And haiku," Keiko added.
"And today," Mrs. Pidgeon told the principal, "we are going to do..." She pointed to the word she had written on the board. "Limericks."
"Funny poems!" Malcolm called out.
Mr. Leroy leaned back in the chair. "Well," he said. "I think I'll stay for a while! I'd like to learn about funny poems myself!"
"Did your mother write a limerick, Mrs. Pidgeon?" Gooney Bird asked.
"She did. I'll read her limerick right now, and then I'll describe how we can create our own." The teacher unfolded a paper.
"Mrs. Pidgeon's mom was a poet," Tricia whispered to Mr. Leroy in explanation.
"Is," Gooney Bird corrected. "Once you're a poet, you're always, always a poet."
"And your feet show it, 'cuz they're Long-fellows," Malcolm added. "Sorry," he said, when he realized that Mrs. Pidgeon was giving him a look.
"This poem has no title," Mrs. Pidgeon said when the class was quiet and waiting. "It's surprising, but often limericks don't have titles. So I'll just start." She began to read.
A very rich lady named Dot
Spent a fortune on buying a yacht,
Then let out a wail
While trying to sail,
For it started to float but did not.
The children laughed. "My cousin tipped over in a canoe once!" Barry said.
"I saw Titanic! The whole ship sank!" Nicholas said.
"Me, too!"
"I saw Titanic too!"
Mrs. Pidgeon played a chord on the piano and the class became quiet. "Boring?" she asked. She was looking at Mr. Leroy.
"Nope. Not boring," Mr. Leroy said with a smile.
"Okay, class. That was a limerick. A limerick is often funny, and it usually begins with a description of a person in the first line. Shall we try creating a limerick together?"
"Yes!" the children called out.
"All right. I'm going to start by giving you a first line. And I'll use my own name."
"No fair!" said Chelsea. "Nothing rhymes with Pidgeon!"
Mrs. Pidgeon chuckled. "It's not necessary to use a last name. How about this?" she suggested. '"There once was a teacher named Pat'?"
She looked around. "Think about words that rhyme with Pat. Who can come up with's. the next line? Hands, please. Don't call out."
For a moment, no hands went up. Everyone sat silently, thinking. Someone murmured, "Fat." Another child said, "Cat," in a low voice. Then, all at once, six hands were raised. Mrs. Pidgeon looked around the room. "Mr. Leroy?" she said, pointing to him. The principal had raised his hand. "Second line?"
"'Who gave up the chair where she sat,'" Mr. Leroy said.
"Cool!" Tyrone called out. "Good job, dude!"
"All right," Mrs. Pidgeon said. "Thank you, Mr. Leroy. Now we have the first two lines." She wrote them on the board. "Next we need two shorter, rhyming lines. Any thoughts, class?"