Sunbonnet Soliloquy

By Jewell Ellen Smith

Michelle’s Poem

This piece has to do with a little girl named Michelle and a poem she wrote for her grandparents. The poem goes like this:

I LOVE MY NANA AND GRANDDADDY

By Michelle Bainbridge

December 25,1980

I love my Nana and Granddaddy,

Because they are so good to me.

Grandaddy taught me how to fly a kite,

And he tucks me in bed at night.

Nana taught me how to cook,

And how to read a book.

Nana cooks good food all day,

And makes it in a very special way.

This year Granddaddy planted a garden With a scarecrow

Which really helped the food grow.

Nana buys us many clothes,

And has a garden with a rose.

They live in a big house,

Which doesn’t even have one mouse.

Whenever we go to visit,

We always come back with a big goodie sack.

Granddaddy takes the garbage out every night,

And never tries to put up a fight.

Nana’s hobby is collecting owls,

Which Granddaddy hates.

Buy one more, he says,

And I’ll shoot them in the face.

Granddaddy has a place at the lake, That has a trailer and a boat.

We have a lot of fun there with our floats.

My grandparents are so special to me,

They even help me when I skin my knee.

I have tried to decide what it is that makes Michelle’s poem so wonderful. It is not the way she handled all the rules of rhyme and meter, or the intricacies of “iambic pentameter!” Little girls are not supposed to know that such matters exist. It is the way Michelle showed her special love for her grandparents that makes her poem great.

(Michelle lives in Atlanta, Georgia. She has a younger sister named Monique, and her mother’s name is Kay. I first met Kay when she was a little girl jumping around skinning her knees! And Nana and Granddaddy? They are retired Army folks -- Lieutenant Colonel and Mrs. Worth D. White (Bill and Virginia) -- our dear friends of 27 years!)

Published March 1981. Click your browser’s ‘Back’ key to return.