The Messy Room

Introduction:This is poem creates a mental picture of a extremely messy room. Before the group arrives, create a messy area around you. As the group starts to arrive, invite them to find a seat around you. Ignore the comments made by students on how messy the area is.

The Messy RoomBy Barry Lane

The Messy Room

Clothes wrestling on the floor,
The shirts and pants pinning the underwear,
The socks balled and stinky,
Sprinkled like black olives over the furniture.

In one corner
The mangled Barbies gather.
Malibu Barbie surfs a sea of headless Ken
Naked Hawaiian Hair Barbie drowns
in a mass of matted grass skirt
wadded with the grape bubble gum
that you tried to save.
A legless Skipper has skipped her last time.

Legos crunched beneath your feet as you
Proceed to the unmade bed,
The bed you were suppose to make every day,
If you were the kind of child
That made her bed every day
That puts her toys away,
And never drank milk from the carton
when no one was looking.

[from THE REVISER’S TOOLBOX by Barry Lane, Discover Writing Press, 1999 ISBN:0965657442, ]

Extension: Encourage students to share the vivid phrases that caught their attention. Have students compose their own vivid phrase that describe their room.