Joshua Gray
PORTRAIT OF A PEANUT
I hate to say it, but I’m so glad Lucy shouts at Charlie Brown.
I get so tired of her yelling at me about The Great Pumpkin
Or anything else. I keep telling her one of these days
She’s going to get Laryngitis, but she just calls me a blockhead.
I’m no blockhead. I’m the one who knows the meaning of Christmas.
I know what not to do with a wet sucker, or when to go to bed
And shrug off life’s worries. It’s not that I don’t get it;
I’m just not too young to be taken seriously, and too old to carry around
my blanket. So I have a crutch. Everyone does. At least
My life experience is soft and warm. But like every crutch, it’s not always useful:
Too hot in summer, not warm enough in winter. But blanket or no,
Lucy, Peppermint Patty, and Sally have their challenges too.
Sally. One minute I see hearts whenever she looks at me,
The next minute she threatens to hurt me if I hold her hand.
I’m usually cool and calm, but Sally unsettles me.
I’ll never ask her to sit with me at the pumpkin patch again.
The only person I seem to completely get is the no one else understands.
My teacher is awesome, and makes me want to teach as well.
I just hope that when I grow up I will have learned the secret
of how to stop sucking my thumb.
Joshua Gray is a native of Washington DC and an internationally published poet. He is the DC Poetry Examiner at examiner.com, and busts poems that inspire him on his Web site joshuagraynow.com. You can find him on twitter using the @jgpoetry handle.
