Gooney Bird Is So Absurd (7 page)

Ben: A cake with pink candles!
All: I remember!

Chelsea: A yellow hair ribbon!
All: I remember!

Malcolm: A kitten named Jingle!
All: I remember!

Tricia: The lace collar on my mother's dress!
All: I remember!

Keiko: Ruffled curtains in
my bedroom!
All: I remember!

Felicia Ann: The fragranthe
of honeythuckle!
All: I remember!

Beanie: Fireflies!
Barry and Mr. Leroy: Fireflies!
Tyrone: Fireflies!
All: So many fireflies!

Gooney Bird called, "What happened to all the fireflies?"

The chorus of children chanted, in reply:

They're out there!
We can't see them!
But Mrs. Pidgeon's mother can!
They're lighting her way!

They all stood silently. Then they held up their hands and waved goodbye.

"This was a Poem for Many Voices," the children said.

After a moment, Mr. Furillo turned the video camera off. They could see him take his rumpled handkerchief from the pocket of his custodian uniform. He wiped his eyes.

The performers left the schoolyard and began to climb the steps to return to school.

"We didn't even wear our poetry hats," Chelsea pointed out.

"It would have been a distraction," Gooney Bird explained, "and anyway, we'd already written the poem. We didn't need to warm our brains for the performance."

"Did you think we did good?" Malcolm asked Mr. Leroy as they entered the school's large front door.

"You did great!" the principal said. He turned and exchanged a high-five with Malcolm. "Just great! I mean,
we
did great. Mrs. Pidgeon will treasure that video, and that poem, forever. It was wonderful.

"We shouldn't boast," he added. Then he looked down at his wet, slush-covered feet, sighed, and said, "My shoes are toast."

Gooney Bird, walking past, had overheard the conversation. She grinned and gave the principal a thumbs-up sign. "Couplet," she said. "Not bad, Mr. L."