by Bruce Lansky
I climbed up the door and
I opened the stairs.
I said my pajamas
and buttoned my prayers.
I turned off the covers
and pulled up the light.
I’m all scrambled up since
she kissed me last night.
Copyright © 1996 Bruce Lansky. From the book My Dog Ate My Homework. Meadowbrook Press. Reprinted by permission of the author.
This is one of the first poems I wrote, or should I say, rewrote. I had seen a poem written by “Anonymous” about a guy who was “walking on air” after being kissed by a girl with whom he was “smitten.” I thought the idea was great but the poem’s wording was “not quite right,” so I reworked it until it seemed “just right” to me. And when I tested my new poem on a panel of 1,000 students, it turned out to be one of the highest scoring poems I had ever tested—a huge improvement over the original poem. Which all goes to show you that in a poem, every single word needs to be “just right.” BTW, girls: when you read this poem, feel free to substitute “he” for “she” in the last line.
Bruce Lansky was first called “the King of Giggle Poetry” by the students of a school in North Miami Beach, Florida whose teacher “kidnapped” Lansky and forced him to perform at her school at needle point. The title refers to Lansky’s popular website: Giggle Poetry and also refers to the third poetry book Lansky ever published: A Bad Case of the Giggles. Altogether he has written or edited 20 humorous poetry and song books which have sold about 4 million copies. He visits schools, because he loves hanging out with kids (unfortunately, his grandchildren live in Sweden, so he only sees them once a year).
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