Germ City

Second Grade was a good year for my oldest son, Mike.  He learned a lot, had fun, made new friends, and wrote a poem that I am pretty sure will be celebrated for years to come.

 Germ City 

by: Michael Olsen

A dumpster is a house for a hobo.

A paper is a house for words.

A railing is a house for germs.

A person's a home for a demon.

A house is a house for me.

I will now attempt to dissect this poem beginning with the first line.  My kids have recently started calling homeless people hobos.  Apparently that is how their friends are also referring to the homeless these days.  After all they are growing up in 1950.  Though after my three year old yelled "look a butt" (he confused butt and bum) at the homeless man we walked by the other day hobo doesn't seem that bad.

Line two of the poem doesn't need much explanation, I actually think Robert Frost may have said similar.

Line three is my fault, I may have a slight hand sanitizer addiction.  Not in the way that prisoners are currently drinking the stuff, I just occasionally ask the boys to wash their hands with it to kill germs.  And railings are disgusting!

A person's a home for a demon may be my favorite line and I have no idea how he thought of it.  Maybe, Goosebumps?

The final line is again self explanatory.  I hope he likes his house, and that it is a house for him for a long time.  Or, until he turns 18 and I send him off to college.  Do you think the admissions office at Harvard will appreciate this poem?