At the end of every month, the Poetry Sisters put out a challenge for their group as well as any others who may want to give it a shot.
Today’s call came from Mary Lee Hahn. She borrowed the prompt from Colby Sharp’s collection The Creativity Project. “It was all my fault.”
There are hard things as well as joyful things when taking responsibility for a seven year old. My daughter is on a work trip, so I am responsible for getting Thomas up, fed, dressed, and to school by 7:35 sharp each morning. I wished I could have written a note to his teacher. “This is Just to say…”
Dearest First Grade Teacher,
This is just to say
it’s all my fault
he has no water bottle today,
his hair is misaligned,
his shirt untucked.
We were in a rush,
you see. The dogs needed feeding,
homework reading, and of course,
the nerf gun reloading.
Please forgive me
if he is a little off his rhythm.
We did text his mom “I love you”
and I pecked a kiss in carpool line.
We are both doing the best we can.
Sincerely,
Mamére
This made me laugh right out loud! Dear friends were urgently called away – one to a NYC legal briefing and the other to another country for a funeral tradition that would not wait – and so I found myself with a week of a five-year-old who was caught off guard by the whole thing and deeply indignant that she had not been consulted.
It did not go well.
I wished with all my heart to have crafted a letter just like this!