Paper Bag

rehend. The second stanza is slightly optimistic, along with a continuation of the wide array of examples. She states that, “The will to do whatever must be done,” and that is where the reader is allowed to conclude how the author feels. No matter the fairy-tale, the character is asked to do a mind-blowing task and somehow manages to summon the strength and courage to do it.

A Person, A Paper, A Promise
By Dr. Earl Reum
Once on a yellow piece of paper with green lines he wrote a poem
And he called it "Chops" because that was the name of his dog
And that's what it was all about
And his teacher gave him an A and a gold star
And his mother hung it on the kitchen door and read it to his aunts
That was the year Father Tracy took all the kids to the zoo
And he let them sing on the bus
And his little sister was born with tiny toenails and no hair
And his mother and father kissed a lot
And the girl around the corner sent him a
Valentine signed with a row of X's and he had to ask his father what the X's meant
And his father always tucked him in bed at night
And was always there to do it

Once on a piece of white paper with blue lines he wrote a poem
And he called it "Autumn" because that was the name of the season
And that's what it was all about
And his teacher gave him an A and asked him to write more clearly
And his mother never hung it on the kitchen door because of its new paint
And the kids told him that Father Tracy smoked cigars
And left butts on the pews
And sometimes they would burn holes
That was the year his sister got glasses with thick lenses and black frames
And the girl around the corner laughed when he asked her to go see Santa Claus
And the kids told him why his mother and father kissed a lot
And his father never tucked him in bed at night
And his father got mad when he cried for him to do it.

Once on a paper torn from his notebook he wrote a poem
And he called it "Innocence: A Question" because that was the question about his girl
And that's what it was all about
And his professor gave him an A and a strange steady look
And his mother never hung it on the kitchen door because he never showed her
That was the year that Father Tracy died
And he forgot how the end of the Apostle's Creed went
And he caught his sister making out on the back porch
And his mother and father never kissed or even talked
And the girl around the corner wore too much makeup
That made him cough when he kissed her but he kissed her anyway because that was the thing to do
And at three a.m. he tucked himself into bed his father snoring soundly

That's why on the back of a brown paper bag he tried another poem
And he called it "Absolutely Nothing"
Because that's what it was really all about
And he gave himself an A and a slash on each damned wrist
And he hung it on the bathroom door because this time he didn't think he could reach the kitchen.

A Person, A Paper, A Promise Explication

“A Person, A Paper, A Promise” by Dr. Earl Reum is a narrative poem, and is about a boy who grows up and loses his way. The poem is made up of four stanzas, each representing a time of the boy’s life. The narrator is an unknown voice, that is narrating the boy’s actions. Each stanza uses repetition of little ordinary things that slowly warp and change, as the boy grows older. Each stanza mentions the boy writing a poem, each on a different type of paper, and all titled something different. “That’s what it was all about” is written after the explanation of each poem, and his mother’s reactions change along with his poems. She begins with much interest, but as the poem continues, so does his mother’s loss of interest.
, as he grows older, at first being proud of him, and then losing interest. The poem is really just about showing you care, and how simple acts of caring effect people. I think that shows so much about the boy, who starts out on a yellow piece of paper writing about his dog, to a box of matches writing a poem entitled “absolutely nothing.”
The first poem written by the boy is written on a yellow piece of paper, and is about his dog named Chops. The poem screams child-like innocence. The poem gets an A and a gold star. The gold star also shows the brightness of childhood. His mother hangs it on the kitchen door for all his aunts to see, and is proud of him. The second poem is written on white paper with neat blue lines, and is about the month autumn. The straight blue lines of his poem and the crispness of autumn show how he’s getting older. It seems more systematic and less about imagination than the first poem he’s written. He still gets an A, but no gold star, he has lost something, he has lost a piece of brightness. His mother doesn’t hang it on the kitchen door because it was just painted. This shows the beginning of the loneliness the boy begins to feel. The third poem he writes is when he’s in college. He writes it on a piece of paper torn out of a notebook. The poem is called “Question Marked Youth” because “that was the name of his grief.” The boy tearing the piece of paper out of his notebook shows how disheveled he is. The boy still gets...