Nick’s great- grandmother is neat.

She always has  great things to eat.

She keeps a lot on her pantry shelf

And  Nick knows he can help himself.

She calls him her “Super Snacker”

And he calls her his “Gram Cracker.”

I see Cabot Colliins

When she visits at the Blakes’.

She’s not afraid of Jeremy

And she’s not afraid of snakes.

He put one in her backpack

While Matthew stood and  cheered.

Cabot calmly shook her head

And said, “You guys are weird.”

The clock tick-tocked to midnight

But my pen went on with its rhyme.

Though my body tired, my pen was fired

With a disregard for time.

When the poet head is asleep in bed

And the last of the long night lingers,

The verse is dead in the poet head

But still spills out of his fingers.

When Dad was in the basement,

I guess Johnny locked him in

And Mom came running to see what

Was causing all the din

There was an awful lot of noise

Coming from below

When Mom cried, “Johnny, where’s the key?”

And John said, “I don’t know”

My  pretty Aunt Lizzie is now fully grown

And so she has moved to a place of her own

But a neighborhood cat has her in a tizzy.

He just sits on her porch and stares at Aunt Lizzie.

While trying to do backbends

It occurred to Jill

That it might be easier if she

Did backbends on a hill.

That fly kept buzzing ’round my head.

I swung at her and missed her.

I meant to swat the fly instead

But…

I swatted my little sister.

I KNEW that fly meant trouble.

Yellow makes me think of sunshine.

Green is  Mother’s eyes.

Blue is sky and sailor suits

And red is cherry pies.

Purple is my Uncle Newt

In his purple bathing suit.

Sometimes when it is thundering

Or just about to rain,

We line up chairs in the dining room

And make The Grady Train.

I’m usually the passenger

Complete with all my gear.

Chris is the conductor

And Lynn’s the engineer.

We blow the whistle and we chug

Like locomotives do

And pretend our destination

Is the San Diego Zoo

But if the weather takes a turn

And it really doesn’t rain,

I say I  have no ticket and

They throw me off the train

Because if the sun is shining

We can just go back outside

And on a different rainy day,

We’ll take another ride.

When we need a sitter,

We hope it’s Uncle Ted

Because he doesn’t make up rules

Or make us go to bed.

We make believe we’ re rock stars

And play the music loud

And we jump around and holler

Like the teeny bopper crowd

But the last time….

Mom came home at midnight

And we STILL were  not in bed

And Uncle Ted was dancing

With a lampshade on his head

So Mom says…
“No more Uncle Ted.

It’s Grandma Mary Lou instead.”