Seven years old and second grade

With a wonderful teacher six feet tall.

My love for reading and writing did not fade,

I added new subjects and loved them all.

 

I rode the bus home an hour each day,

Even then I was a latchkey kid.

I picked up my sister from my aunt’s house where she would stay

I cooked and I cleaned and my feelings, I kept hid.

I wanted someone to look after me,

And let me be a child.

To show me things I couldn’t see

And be unworried for a while.

 

Seven years old is too young to know

Your parents can’t pay their bills and have nowhere to go.