Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Sore Tooth

Wrote this for a student who complained of a sore tooth. This is what teachers call "modeling" but what is really probably closer to a "dereliction of duty."


Sore Tooth

I'm sitting here in class,
and my mouth is really sore.
I'm trying to be tough,
but it's too hard to ignore.
My eyes have started watering,
I do not want to cry.
My toothache hurts so much
I think I'm going to die.
I have to tell the teacher,
maybe he'll know what to do.
On second thought, he won't,
that guy doesn't have a clue.
Maybe if I punch myself
I'll forget about the pain.
I think I'll try my shoulder,
it's not good for any-thang.
On second thought, that's silly,
my tooth will still feel bad.
There is no way to fix it,
it's starting to make me mad.
So I slam my fist onto my desk,
my teacher glares at me.
But with the tears rolling down my face
he decides to leave me be.
I touch my tooth, it is so loose
I think it might fall out
I pull and tug and twist and jerk
it's coming, there's no doubt!
Then--pop!--it's free, my tooth is out!
It's lying in my palm.
And then I notice another thing--
my feelings, they are calm.
The pain is gone, I feel better,
I push out my chair and stand.
I'm heading to the sink because
there's blood all over my hand.


I know, not my greatest, but you try writing poetry while keeping one eye on 28 kids.


10 comments:

Anita said...

I think it's awesome! You and Tracy amaze me with your teaching prowess. I would so love to have my kids be taught by you...until mid-year, when you'd have to leave to find ways to spend the millions generated by your highest-grossing of-all-time book series.

Kelly Polark said...

Very good, especially for writing it on the fly!
Did he pull the tooth out like you rhymed?

Paul Michael Murphy said...

It was a she, and no, she didn't pull it out in class. But maybe the poem took her mind off it for a while.

Parent-teacher conferences just finished. Guh.

Tina Laurel Lee said...

Fun.

Laura Pauling said...

It's so easy to take teeth for granted - until they hurt! Ouch!

Anita said...

Guess what...my third grader had a sore tooth this morning!

Paul Michael Murphy said...

For your daughter's sake, I will avoid any anal leakage poems for the time being.

Tina Laurel Lee said...

Gosh, you are tooooooo kind!

Anita said...

Trust me, a little anal leakage would not slow down that girl. Perhaps you could try a cleaning-up-your-room poem?

I'm totally skipping Boy's and Oldest Daughter's parent-teacher conferences. Youngest Daughter's was early, because the teacher was very pregnant (baby born today). At one point at a conference with the pregnant teacher, I was off-handedly saying how I was surprised YD didn't have the highest mark (a 5, I think) in Math. And the teacher said, "Well, if I knew you were going to expect that, I would've just given her all 5s." Husband looked at me, worried, because I can be quite volatile when people get my Pueblo up. But the woman was hormonal and I really don't care much what my third grader's grades are, because she's really really smart and, she's in THIRD GRADE.

word verifaction: undid

Anonymous said...

Gee! I think you did great!!!

Lindsey Petersen