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Of course you know it’s Poetry Month
but do you know that
the wonderful and
mouth-wateringly
delicious Jama Rattigan
has herded poet bloggers
in the Kidlitosphere onto
her site  this month?

Thank you, Jama!

 

(And check out my group blog,
TeachingAuthors.com!
Every Friday when we talk
poetry, poetry, poetry!)

 

I write a poem each day; during Poetry Month 2015 I’m sharing *PPPs 
Welcome to Poetry Month 2015!

Eli and I will be feeding you one PPP per day for Poetry Month this year.  What is a PPP, you ask?  A *Previously Published Poem.  I have so many poems in so many anthologies, books and magazines, Eli thought I should snap a leash on one each day this month and give it a walk around the block.  So that’s what we’re doing this year.  Enjoy!

(once you click on the title of the poem to the right,
the post shows up below ↓ )

Eli thinking deep, poetic thoughts…

April 4

THOSE SCHOOL DANCES


THOSE SCHOOL DANCES
by April Halprin Wayland

At the dance,
I wander into the
cold-tiled bathroom:
fixing, fixing, a line
of fixing girls,
making sure.
What’s wrong?
Is it the color of my lipstick?
Is that why I’m not being asked to dance?
Is it my bitten fingernails?

I wander back to the fringe
of the cool gym
to heat my wall spot.
Other wall-warmers
are whisked away.
I work hard, hiding my fingertips
from inspection.

I leave
slowly
when the lights flash on,
collecting a balloon for my room
and confetti to sprinkle in my hair;
go out into the chill night
to watch for that bronze Buick’s headlights blazing
and my father’s
bathrobed figure
in the driver’s seat.

Back home,
I cuddle up to comfortable
bodies on a queen-size
bed, watch a mystery movie, and hold my mother’s warm
and bitten
fingertips.
published in Cricket Magazine September 1999
also published in GIRL COMING IN FOR A LANDING (Knopf) 2002

from MorgueFile.com

from MorgueFile.com

 

poem © 2015 April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved

3 Responses to “THOSE SCHOOL DANCES”

  1. Sigh….I remember this.

    “to heat my wall spot.”

    You nailed that feeling, those days, April. Thank goodness for the warmth of home, for those of us so lucky.

    xo, a.

  2. Bob Bragonier says:

    No, April. Not YOU. I wish I had been there; I would have been honored to have had a dance with you. Some boys were so dumb…

  3. Amy, Amy, Amy! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

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