Poetry 108: Love That Dog

So I'm in third grade, and the elementary school librarian walks into the classroom for reading time with a small yellow book in hand. It's called Love That Dog, by Sharon Creech.

Love That Dog tells the story of a boy named Jack and his dog, Sky, written through poems that Jack writes for a school poetry assignment. I suppose by showing you guys Jack's poem "My Sky" it's kind of a spoiler, but if I'm going to include a poem from the book it pretty much has to be this one, cause it's definitely my favorite.

MY SKY: By Jack

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 his 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.

Oh gosh, maybe it's just my inner third grader, but that poem still gets to me every single time! As you can imagine, that caused basically the entire third grade class to start bawling their eyes out, haha. But the book isn't all sad, don't worry. There are a lot of fun, lighthearted poems written by Jack about memories with him and Sky as well. If you're a dog lover, I think you'd appreciate this book of poetry as much as I do.