You're In For a Real Treat

As a Christmas present to me, my mother put together a big binder of photos of me and papers of mine she'd collected since I was a baby. (But ma, did you have to include my SAT scores?)

Then, low and behold, inserted inside a shiny see-through folder was what must have been one of my first poems as evidenced by the primitive writing and spelling.


The Bird

One day I saw a chickedy
walking down the street
he said hello and I said hi
and then he bit my feet

For those of you familiar with my work, you can see not much has changed. I continue to go for the surprise ending.

Then I turned the page and was astounded to find I'd already begun practicing the art of revision.


The Bird

One day I saw a chickedy
walking down the street
he said hello and I said hi
and then we said tweet tweet

As usual, I like the first draft better.