'Twas the Night Before School

based on the poem by Clement Clarke Moore

'Twas the night before school, when all through the house

All the children were stirring, including my spouse;

The backpacks were packed with supplies a-plenty,

Knowing the alarm was set for six-twenty;

The children begged for just one more story,

While thoughts of homework felt quite gory;

And daddy reading from his iPad, and I at my laptop,

Had just settled in when it was time to stop,

When from the bedroom there arose such a clatter,

We sprang into action wondering what was the matter.

Away to the kids' room we flew in a flash,

Unlocked the door and turned on the light in a dash.

Alarms were ringing from Spy Gear toys,

and giggling ensued from our not-so-little boys,

When, what to our wondering ears should appear,

but a refusal to attend school this year.

Upon the eve of school, they thought they were quick,

I knew in a moment they were playing a trick.

More rapid than excuses their truthsayers came,

And we nodded, and turned out the lights, and called them by name;

"Now, Peter! now, Danny! now, stop this foolish game!
On, Peter! on Danny! on and on the orders came!
To bed you must go! to dream world you must travel!
Now quiet! now sleep! before you unravel!"

As fall leaves that turn to a brilliant array,

Glide gently to rest upon the grass in their own way,

So too did their eyelids droop into slumbers,

About their ABC's and  their numbers.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard in the morn,

The moaning and and groaning as if stuck by a thorn.

As I took a deep breath in the kitchen, and was turning around,

Down the stairs Pete and Dan came with a bound.

They were dressed all in jammies from their heads to their toes,

And were they planning to go to school like this, who knows?

A bundle of electronics they had flung in their backpacks,

And they looked like skater dudes in their short slacks.

Their eyes -- how they teared! their mouths in such frowns!

Their cheeks were like concrete, their noses like sad towns!

Their little mouths all sagging like little bridges,

And their slumping shoulders were as rounded as ridges.

They spoke not a word, which gave me a scare,

And put on their backpacks and began to swear,

And walking out the door in a huff they went,

Plotting their revenge, on their bikes they did vent.

I sprang from my bed, my clock read five-fifteen,

I awoke from that sleep, wondering what it could mean,

I sighed, relieved, the fog of the dream beginning to clear,

HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL, AND TO ALL A GOOD YEAR!

Namaste,

L