Bear In There

from the book "A Light in the Attic" (1981)

By Shel Silversteen

There's a Polar Bear

In our Frigidaire--
He likes it 'cause it's cold in there.
With his seat in the meat
And his face in the fish
And his big hairy paws
In the buttery dish,
He's nibbling the noodles,
He's munching the rice,
He's slurping the soda,
He's licking the ice.
And he lets out a roar
If you open the door.
And it gives me a scare
To know he's in there--
That Polary Bear
In our Fridgitydaire.

The Balloon Man

By Anonymous

He always comes on market days

And holds balloons a lovely bunch
And in the market square he stays,
And never seems to think of lunch.

They're red and purple, blue and green,

And when it is a sunny day
The carts and people get between
You see them shining far away.

And some are big and some are small,

All tied together with a string.

And if there is a wind at all

They tug and tug like anything.

Some day perhaps he'll let them go

And we shall see them sailing high,
And stand and watch them from below
They would look pretty in the sky!
 The Answer
BY BEI DAO
TRANSLATED BY BONNIE S. MCDOUGALL

Debasement is the password of the base,

Nobility the epitaph of the noble.
See how the gilded sky is covered
With the drifting twisted shadows of the dead.

The Ice Age is over now,

Why is there ice everywhere?
The Cape of Good Hope has been discovered,
Why do a thousand sails contest the Dead Sea?

I came into this world

Bringing only paper, rope, a shadow,
To proclaim before the judgment
The voice that has been judged:

Let me tell you, world,

I-do-not-believe!
If a thousand challengers lie beneath your feet,
Count me as number thousand and one.

What I Learned In School

By Robert Pottle.

At school I've learned a lot of things

I really like to do,
like running in the hallway
and eating gobs of glue.
I've learned I'm good at making pencils
dangle from my nose.
I've learned to hum and pop my gum.
I practice, and it shows.
I've learned I like to cut in line
and love to cut the cheese.
I've learned to fake a burp, a cough,
and even fake a sneeze.
You'd think with all this learning
I'd be doing well in school,
but everything I learn to do
appears to break a rule.