Love That Dog

Jack theorizes that poems are just words that create mental pictures—and drawing on his own experience—thinks that the famous poets simply believed their work were true poems after seeing them printed on nice paper. The other students begin to notice Jack’s work, though he chooses to remain anonymous.

Jack writes a poem about the first time he met Sky, his yellow dog. Jack’s father surprised him with a trip to the animal shelter, the two adopting Sky by the end of it. The poem bluntly concludes that the other dogs will “get killed dead” if people don’t adopt them (27). Jack allows Miss Stretchberry to publish the poem but tells her to omit the sad ending. He titles the poem “You Come Too,” a name derived from Frost’s “The Pasture”—the poem Jack doesn’t like.

Jack later reads “Street Music” by Arnold Adoff and applies the poem’s musical sounds to a poem about his neighborhood. He writes about kids playing in the street and how the older ones call out “Car!” He also describes the “Caution! Children at play!” signs and how cars don’t follow said warnings at times (33).

Inspired by S.