The day I was born, the best
super hero book was published.
My family crowded around that book
in the library, and then I appeared.
They looked at me and assumed
I was a robot toy, but no. I was a boy
with a dictionarial head, and my fingers were book
lights. I smelled of ink and paper from the many
books I read. I arrived in the world with dozens of science
fiction and long chapter books. I was fifteen
inches tall, four inches wide, and four inches in depth.
I had a hoarse and deep voice as if I had been talking
to myself for days on end. I tasted something in my mouth
like factory-fresh cellophane on the new books
coming off the assembly line. The air inside the amazing
circle of curiosity was dense, warm air, and everybody
was sweating. I grew and kept reading
books for the rest of my super hero lifetime.
By Ryan, 3rd Grade
Click the link above to listen to the poem read on KPFT radio by Hannah Reeves, a 8th grader at Johnston Middle School For the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston.
This poem is featured as part of the 2013 A Poem a Day campaign, a National Poetry Month celebration by Writers in the Schools (WITS) that features a different poem by a WITS student every day during April. Click here to learn more.
Special thanks to Susan Phillips, an independent radio producer and KPFT volunteer in Houston, who recorded and produced all the poems for the WITS A Poem a Day campaign.