Mixed-Up School
By X. J. Kennedy
We have a crazy mixed-up school.
Our teacher Mrs. Cheetah
Makes us talk backwards. Nicer cat
You wouldn’t want to meet a.
To start the day we eat our lunch,
Then do some heavy dome-work.
The boys’ and girls’ rooms go to us,
The hamster marks our homework.
At recess time we race inside
To don our diving goggles,
Play pin-the-donkey-on-the-tail,
Ball-foot or ap-for-bobbles.
Old Cheetah with a chunk of chalk
Writes right across two blackboards,
And when she says, “Go home!” we walk
The whole way barefoot backwards.
From Exploding Gravy: Poems to Make You Laugh. © Curtis Brown, Ltd., 2002.