A Powum

The other day Miss Kate was working on a reading lesson. She came to the word "poem" and stopped abruptly. "Where's the 'L'?" she demanded. "There should be an 'L'!" She grabbed a pencil and wedged an 'L' between the 'o' and the 'e.' "There. Polem."

She's my fourth child. All four of them have thought that the word poem was pronounced polem. I'm beginning feel self conscious about my diction.

But poor diction hasn't kept Miss Kate from penning eloquence. I share with you her latest, followed by a translation:

bethie powum

bethie concked my head
with a oerdumit yestrday
on chrismis i wusit very
mad bcus it didit hrt
not atal but
the tree wobold
intel it fel over
and brok the
oerdumiits
dad was mad SO mad
the next day derw
took a pesol and
pooshed it in my
nail it rily hrt
and the next day aidan
poosht me in the pool
by and by i
thru up on
the cowch wal wocheng
kippr
by-by

A (rather necessary) translation:

Bethie Poem

Bethie conked my head
With a ornament yesterday
On Christmas I wasn't very
Mad because it didn't hurt
Not at all but
The tree wobbled
Until it fell over
And broke the ornaments
Dad was mad SO mad
The next day Drew
Took a pencil and
Pushed it in my
Nail it really hurt
And the next day Aidan
Pushed me in the pool
By and by I
Threw up on
The couch while watching
Kipper

Bye-bye


By and by, I feel compelled to add that none of this actually happened. No wobbling Christmas trees, no excessive "pooshing," no conked heads. Just plenty of Kipper. And just a girl who is coming to grips with the word polem no longer existing. So she writes powums instead.