Brian Cleary

Haiku

When you’ve written one
Without enough syllables,
You add words. Football.

Sleepover Party

The letters had a sleepover:
With popcorn, snacks, TV.
But drinking too much soda
Made the elemeno P.

I Babysat (Once)

I was pushing the buggy one day
When my grip on the handle gave way
And it started to roll
downhill out of control
With my sister still snoozing away.

She rolled through the center of town.
Still asleep through the
deafening sound,
Of barks and bow-wow-as
of the beagles, Chihuahuas
And mutts at the city dog pound.

Past Main street and Elm rolled my sister
It’s amazing that all the cars missed her.
She moved with the ease
of a cool evening breeze
But the speed of a level 3 twister.

I found her off Highway 19
Having gone through the car was machine.
With a lemony smell
(They had waxed her as well)
I brought her back home nice and clean.

Aunt Anna

Aunt Anna can fix anything –
a PARIS skates, a cup,
If your pants rip INDONESIA
just HAVANA sew them up!

My grandma wears a 2-foot wig
that’s held on with APE pin,
But if you think her hair is big,
EWE OTTER SEA URCHIN

The Joy of Discovery

Each week, I’m asked to clean my room, but what I do instead,
Is simply take the whole week’s mess to stash beneath my bed.
Then came the day I didn’t have a single thing to wear,
Or read, or dry myself with, so I took a look down there.
I found two books, three towels, some long-thought lost remotes,
Cereal and sunscreen and two fall-and-winter coats,
Pizza crust, a pillow and some shirts and underpants,
Socks and shoes, a sticky, swirly sucker . . . and some ants.