Love That Dog Read online

  want to put

  his or her name

  on it?

  Was it like me

  when I didn’t think

  my words

  were

  poems?

  Maybe you will tell

  the anonymous tree poet

  that his or her tree poem

  is really

  a poem

  really really

  and a good poem, too.

  MARCH 14

  That was the best best BEST

  poem

  you read yesterday

  by Mr. Walter Dean Myers

  the best best BEST

  poem

  ever.

  I am sorry

  I took the book home

  without asking.

  I only got

  one spot

  on it.

  That’s why

  the page is torn.

  I tried to get

  the spot

  out.

  I copied that BEST poem

  and hung it on my

  bedroom wall

  right over my bed

  where I can

  see it when I’m

  lying

  down.

  Maybe you could

  copy it too

  and hang it

  on the wall

  in our class

  where we can see it

  when we are sitting

  at our desks

  doing our stuff.

  I sure liked that poem

  by Mr. Walter Dean Myers

  called

  “Love That Boy.”

  Because of two reasons

  I liked it:

  One is because

  my dad calls me

  in the morning

  just like that.

  He calls

  Hey there, son!

  And also because

  when I had my

  yellow dog

  I loved that dog

  and I would call him

  like this—

  I’d say—

  Hey there, Sky!

  (His name was Sky.)

  MARCH 22

  My yellow dog

  followed me everywhere

  every which way I turned

  he was there

  wagging his tail

  and slobber

  coming out

  of his mouth

  when he was smiling

  at me

  all the time

  as if he was

  saying

  thank you thank you thank you

  for choosing me

  and jumping up on me

  his shaggy straggly paws

  on my chest

  like he was trying

  to hug the insides

  right out of me.

  And when us kids

  were playing outside

  kicking the ball

  he’d chase after it

  and push it with his nose

  push push push

  and getting slobber

  all over the ball

  but no one cared

  because he was such

  a funny dog

  that dog Sky

  that straggly furry

  smiling

  dog

  Sky.

  And I’d call him

  every morning

  every evening

  Hey there, Sky!

  MARCH 27

  Yes, you can type up

  what I wrote about

  my dog Sky

  but don’t type up

  that other secret one

  I wrote—

  the one all folded up

  in the envelope

  with tape on it.

  That one uses too many of

  Mr. Walter Dean Myers’s

  words

  and maybe

  Mr. Walter Dean Myers

  would get mad

  about that.

  APRIL 4

  I was very glad

  to hear that

  Mr. Walter Dean Myers

  is not the sort of person

  who would get mad

  at a boy

  for using some of his words.

  And thank you

  for typing up

  my secret poem

  the one that uses

  so many of

  Mr. Walter Dean Myers’s

  words

  and I like what

  you put

  at the top:

  Inspired by Walter Dean Myers.

  That sounds good

  to my ears.

  Now no one

  will think

  I just copied

  because I

  couldn’t think

  of my own words.

  They will know

  I was

  inspired by

  Mr. Walter Dean Myers.

  But don’t put it

  on the board

  yet, okay?

  Is Mr. Walter Dean Myers

  a live person?

  And if he is

  do you think

  he could ever come

  to our city

  to our school

  to our class?

  And if he did

  we should hide

  my poem

  with his words—

  hide it real good—

  just in case

  he would get mad

  about that.

  APRIL 9

  No.

  No, no, no, no, no.

  I can’t do it.

  You should do it.

  You’re a teacher.

  APRIL 12

  I don’t agree

  that Mr. Walter Dean Myers

  might like to hear

  from a boy

  who likes his poems.

  I think Mr. Walter Dean Myers

  would like to hear

  from a teacher

  who uses big words

  and knows how

  to spell

  and

  to type.

  APRIL 17

  Dear Mr. Walter Dean Myers,

  You probably don’t want to hear from me

  because I am only a boy

  and not a teacher

  and I don’t use

  big words

  and you probably won’t read this

  or even if you do read it

  you probably are way too busy

  to answer it

  let alone do the thing

  I am going to ask you

  and I want you to know

  that’s okay

  because our teacher says

  writers are very very very very

  busy

  trying to write their words

  and the phone is ringing

  and the fax is going

  and the bills need paying

  and sometimes they get sick

  (I hope you are not sick,

  Mr. Walter Dean Myers)

  or their family gets sick

  or their electricity goes off

  or the car needs fixing

  or they have to go

  to the grocery store

  or do the laundry

  or clean up messes.

  I don’t know how

  you find the time

  to write your words

  if you have to do all that stuff

  and maybe you should get

  a helper.

  So what I am asking you

  is this:

  If you ever get time

  to leave your house

  and if you ever feel

  like visiting a school

  where there might be some kids

  who like your poems

  would you ever maybe

  think about maybe

  coming

  maybe

  to our school

  which is a cle
an place

  with mostly nice

  people in it

  and I think our teacher

  Miss Stretchberry

  would maybe even

  make brownies for you

  because she sometimes

  makes them for us.

  I hope I haven’t too much

  stopped you from doing your

  writing of words

  and fixing your car

  and getting groceries

  and all that stuff—

  just to read this letter

  which probably is taking you

  maybe fifteen minutes

  and in that time

  you could’ve maybe

  written

  a whole new poem

  or at least the start

  of one

  and so I am sorry

  for taking up your

  time

  and I understand

  if you can’t come

  to our clean school

  and read some of your poems

  to us

  and let us see your face

  which I bet

  is a friendly face.

  My name is Jack.

  Bye, Mr. Walter Dean Myers.

  APRIL 20

  Did you mail it?

  Did he answer yet?

  APRIL 24

  Months???

  It might

  take months

  for Mr. Walter Dean Myers

  to answer my letter?

  If he answers it?

  I didn’t know—

  until you explained—

  that the letter has to go

  to Mr. Walter Dean Myers’s

  publisher company

  and then someone

  at the publisher company

  has to sort all the mail

  not just my letter

  but hundreds and hundreds

  of letters

  to hundreds of authors

  all that big mess of mail

  piled up

  and someone sorting sorting sorting

  all that mail

  and then the letters for

  Mr. Walter Dean Myers

  go to him

  and maybe he’s away

  maybe he’s on vacation

  maybe he’s sick

  maybe he’s hiding in a room

  writing poems

  maybe he’s baby-sitting

  his children or his grandchildren

  (if he’s married and stuff)

  or maybe he has to go

  to the dentist

  or get that car fixed

  or maybe someone died

  (I really really really hope

  someone did not die)

  so

  if you ask me

  it could take him

  years

  to get around

  to answering

  that letter

  so I guess

  we’d better

  just forget about it

  not count on it

  get it out of our minds

  do something else

  forget it.

  APRIL 26

  Sometimes

  when you are trying

  not to think about something

  it keeps popping back

  into your head

  you can’t help it

  you think about it

  and

  think about it

  and

  think about it

  until your brain

  feels like

  a squashed pea.

  MAY 2

  Yes

  you can type up

  the thing about

  trying not to think about

  something

  but

  you’d better

  leave my name off it

  because it was

  just words

  coming out of my head

  and I wasn’t paying

  too much attention

  to which words

  came out

  when.

  MAY 7

  Maybe you could

  show me

  how to use

  the computer

  and then

  I could type up

  my own words?

  MAY 8

  I didn’t know about

  the spell-checking thing

  inside the computer.

  It is like a miracle

  little brain

  in there

  a little helper brain.

  But I am a slow typer person.

  Did you say there is

  a teaching-typing thing

  in that computer, too?

  Will it help me type

  better

  and

  faster

  taptaptaptaptap

  so my fingers

  can go as fast

  as my brain?

  MAY 14

  (I typed this up myself.)

  MY SKY

  We were outside

  in the street

  me and some other kids

  kicking the ball

  before dinner

  and Sky was

  chasing chasing chasing

  with his feet going

  every which way

  and his tail

  wag-wag-wagging

  and his mouth

  slob-slob-slobbering

  and he was

  all over the place

  smiling and wagging

  and slobbering

  and making

  us laugh

  and my dad

  came walking up the street

  he was way down there

  near the end

  I could see him

  after he got off the bus

  and he was walk-walk-walking

  and I saw him wave

  and he called out

  “Hey there, son!”

  and so I didn’t see

  the car

  coming from the other way

  until someone else—

  one of the big kids—

  called out

  “Car!”

  and I turned around

  and saw a

  blue car blue car

  splattered with mud

  speeding down the road

  And I saw Sky

  going after the ball

  wag-wag-wagging

  his tail

  and I called him

  “Sky! Sky!”

  and he turned his

  head

  but it was too late

  because the

  blue car blue car

  splattered with mud

  hit Sky

  thud thud thud

  and kept on going

  in such a hurry

  so fast

  so many miles to go

  it couldn’t even stop

  and

  Sky

  was just there

  in the road

  lying on his side

  with his legs bent funny

  and his side heaving

  and he looked up at me

  and I said

  “Sky! Sky! Sky!”

  and then my dad

  was there

  and he lifted Sky

  out of the road

  and laid him on the grass

  and

  Sky

  closed his eyes

  and

  he

  never

  opened

  them

  again

  ever.

  MAY 15

  I don’t know.

  If you put it on the board

  and people read it

  it might make them

  sad.

  MAY 17

  Okay.

  I guess.

  I’ll put my name on it.

  But I hope it doesn’t make

&nb
sp; people feel too sad

  and if it does

  maybe you could

  think of something

  to cheer everybody up

  like maybe with

  some of those brownies

  you make

  the chocolate ones

  that are so good?

  MAY 21

  Wow!

  Wow wow wow wow wow!

  That was the best best BEST

  news

  ever

  I can’t believe it.

  Mr. Walter Dean Myers

  is really really really

  coming

  to our school?

  He was coming

  to our city

  anyway

  to see his old buddy?

  And he would be

  honored

  to visit

  our clean school

  and meet the mostly nice kids

  who like his poems?

  We sure are lucky

  that his old buddy

  lives in our town.

  WOW!!!

  MAY 28

  The bulletin board

  looks like it’s

  blooming words

  with everybody’s poems

  up there

  on all those

  colored sheets of paper

  yellow blue pink red green.

  And the bookcase

  looks like it’s

  sprouting books

  all of them by

  Mr. Walter Dean Myers

  lined up

  looking back at us

  waiting for

  Mr. Walter Dean Myers

  himself

  to come

  to our school

  right into our classroom.

  Wow!

  MAY 29

  I can’t wait.

  I can’t sleep.

  Are you sure

  you hid my poem

  that was inspired

  by Mr. Walter Dean Myers?

  I don’t want to do

  any any anything

  to upset him.

  JUNE 1

  MR.

  WALTER

  DEAN

  MYERS

  DAY

  I NEVER

  in my whole life

  EVER

  heard anybody

  who could talk

  like that

  Mr. Walter Dean Myers.

  All of my blood

  in my veins