Friends

We all have the same little bones in our foot
twenty-six with funny names like navicular.
Together they build something strong—
our foot arch a pyramid holding us up.
The bones don’t get casts when they break.
We tape them—one phalange to its neighbor for...

I come from a country so far away
that you may have visited only in your dreams.
My face does not bear the pale color of my palms.
I don’t speak your language at home.
I don’t even sound like you.
If you come to...

You cannot pronounce my name.
“Soor-ya.” Not “soar.”
Surya—the sun god.
Mom always tells me that a smile heals everything.
So I try.
I sit beside you in the cafeteria
and smile.

You look down at your food
and eat your cheeseburger,
I eat the lemon rice in my...

They ignored the new boy,
snickering behind his back.

                                                    In silence, I stayed     safe.
   ...

Mad has decided to catch a vulture,
the biggest bird she can find.
 
She is so determined, and so inventive,
that by stringing together a rickety trap
of ropes and sticks, she creates
a puzzling structure that just might
be clever enough to trick a buzzard,
once...

Her
Focusing on blanks,
A, B, C, all of above.
Your eyes lock on mine.
Brain now a washing machine—
facts, letters tumble and spin.
 
Him
Tests are less trouble
for me since I have met you.
Is it possible?
Can having you in my life
increase the size of my...

On Tuesday
on the way to Tween Time
Alison is all bubbly with
guess-whos
and guess-whats.

“Guess who really stole
Mrs. Bagwell's ring?”

“Guess what Mrs. Bagwell
is doing now?”

“Guess what you and I
are going to do this Friday?”

I hold my hand up. “Whoa!
One guess at a time, please.”

“I'm so—”
I start to apologize,
but Albert laughs.
“It's not my birthday,”
he says.
I'm confused.
“It's for you, Bindi.”
“Me?” I say. “It's not
my birthday, either.”
Albert leads me to the chair.
He hands me the present.
I open it.
It's one of those
plastic trophy things.
It says: “World's Best Sister.”
I get all...

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where...

He laughed with a laugh
that he wished was his laugh,
but everyone knew it wasn’t.
 
When he laughed he would ask,
"Does that sound like my laugh?"
and everyone said, "It doesn’t."
 
The laugh that he laughed
that wasn’t his laugh went
"Hardy har har, guffaw!"

The laugh...

Gather 'round, ye scurvy mates,
I'm signing on a crew.
 
You there! Can ye tie a knot?
Ye’ll do.
 
I'd say you've snatched a purse or two.
Ye'll do.
 
Does the thought of plundered gold
make ye shiver?
Make ye bold?
Ye'll do.
 
Ha! You’re rotten through and through!
Ye'll do.
 
Phew!...

Tonight's your lucky night, boys.
Look what I fixed for you!
Stood all day in the burning sun
to make this son-of-a-gun stew.

Longhorn steaks two inches thick,
dig in while they're hot.
The coffee'll keep you up all night,
belly up to the pot.

You know your...

Katie kissed me!
Yuck, it's true!
My face took on a greenish hue!
My knees, like jelly, started shaking!
Then my stomach started quaking!
Slobber slithered down my cheek!
My consciousness was growing weak!
My ears were ringing, my head was spinning!
But, all the while Kate was...

When I am gone what will you do?
Who will write and draw for you?
Someone smarter—someone new?
Someone better—maybe YOU!

My mother sends me a black-and-white
photograph of   her and my father, circa
1968, posing with two Indian men.

“Who are those Indian guys?” I ask her
on the phone.

“I don’t know,” she says.

The next obvious question: “Then why
did you send me this photo?”...

The room I entered was a dream of this room.
Surely all those feet on the sofa were mine.
The oval portrait
of a dog was me at an early age.
Something shimmers, something is hushed up.

We had macaroni for lunch every day
except Sunday,...

Your world is as big as you make it.
I know, for I used to abide
In the narrowest nest in a corner,
My wings pressing close to my side.
 
But I sighted the distant horizon...

I
On the top of the Crumpetty Tree
      The Quangle Wangle sat,
But his face you could not see,
      On account of his Beaver Hat.
For his Hat was a hundred and two feet wide,
With ribbons and bibbons on every side
And bells, and buttons, and...

Billy, in one of his nice new sashes,
Fell in the fire and was burned to ashes;
Now, although the room grows chilly,
I haven't the heart to poke poor Billy.

The monsters in my closet
Like to sleep the day away.
So when I get home from school,
I let them out to play.

When Mom calls me for supper,
I give them each a broom.
First they put my toys away,
And then they clean my...