Tuesday, March 5, 2013

What Happens to a Toy Chewed Up?

Currently my seventh grade writing students are immersed in a poetry unit, which has been a lot of fun!  In class, we recently read Langston Hughes's "What Happens to a Dream Deferred?"  Here are the lines to it if you do not recall:

What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?

My students had some really good insight into the deeper meaning between each set of similes.  They puzzled to figure out why each was a perfect example of a dream dying.  So, the other day when I saw these two legs ominously lying beside our trash and recycling cans, a similar thought sprang to mind of, "What happens to a toy chewed up?

Reminiscent of Dorothy's house falling on the Wicked Witch of the East in The Wizard of Oz


Pure carnage

I specifically remember many good times with this once special and then wholly intact toy.

A once clean Crazy Legs Monkey palling around with Sock Monkey
Testing out the travel crate with Crazy Legs close by

Crazy monkey on Milt's back!

 I suppose it was really only a matter of time until Milton separated those crazy legs from Crazy Legs Monkey.  So, what really happens to a toy chewed up?  It hangs around until Milton starts swallowing bits and pieces of it.  Then it hits the trashcan for a proper burial at the dump.  Sad, I know.  If only Milt would learn to be more responsible with his toys!

3 comments:

  1. LOOK HOW MUCH MILT HAS GROWN! He was just a little fella back then :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh Mommy, that second picture is hysterical. I hope you let The Milt keep at least one crazy leg. I'm no Langston Hughes but here goes:


    What happens to a toy chewed up
    I blame it all upon my pup
    He snarls and tosses it up in the air
    So much so the toy is beyond repair
    So we bow our heads and say good-bye
    Then off he goes to his toy supply
    For another round of shredding a toy
    He’s so very goofy, my doodle boy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Goob! So creative. I LOVE your poem! Rhyming is difficult for me, but you just took it and went! Bravo!!

      Delete