Writing by Jan Dean

Writing

and then i saw it
saw it all all the mess
and blood and everythink
and mam agenst the kichin dor
the flor all stiky
and the wall all wet
and red and dad besid the kitchen draw
i saw it saw it all
an wrot it down an ever word of it is tru

You must take care to write in sentences,
Checky your spellings and your paragraphs.
Is this finished? It is rather short.
Perhaps next time you will have more to say.

Jan Dean

This poem is rather interesting. The first time I read it, I laughed assuming this was a commentary on how ridiculous the lack of editing can be. But then I really actually on the first stanza, the one nearly impossible to read. It was then I realized the italics were not the important part of the poem. In the first stanza you read in broken English about a broken home. It sounds to me like this child has witnessed abuse. The teacher goes on to comment about the grammar of it, asking, "Is this finished?... Perhaps next time you will have more to say." What this teacher did not realize is this child said everything, everything there was to say, but she was too involved with her world of editing to notice the intent of the author. This poem really is a commentary on ignoring the signs of abuse and this poem is an incredible way of saying it.