Mrs. Gargulio Poem by Asher Proschansky

It seemed that Mrs. Gargulio liked book reports
We were only in the second grade
She liked to have lots of them
We suspected she needed ghost writers
For possibly a new book of literary critique
We were not that well read
And reported on books we had not seen
Sometimes she wasn't all the wiser
Maybe she did not take kindly to the books on the list
Preferring huge tomes herself

Well one day I suffered from a dearth of reports
I was nervous about going back to school after lunch
For you see this is when you had to stand up
And recite your book reports nervously
My mother seeing I was in a jam and
quite besides myself lacking a single report
took me to the park and I watched the birds over head
as I calmed down, I wrote a report on the one book
I had in fact read, though many more were required

But another boy, without such a mother, I imagined
Got called up, with nothing, and threw up on the teacher
and her stack of critiques
though some were fake and pre-maturely jaded
we did not cheer
but felt a sigh of relief