Lie Poems

I kicked off class by announcing that I came from the moon, stood seventy-two feet tall with curly purple hair, and ate elephants for breakfast. In near-perfect unison, several kids exclaimed, "No, you don't!"

"Oh, no?" I asked. "What's it called when I say things that aren't true?" After a few tries, they came up lie, just the word I was looking for. I asked them for the biggest, fattest lie they could think of: where they came from, what they looked like, what they ate for breakfast, anything. They happily spun tall tales for me, each taller than the one before, and once the room got too loud to hear individual voices, I shouted, "Okay, you're ready! Start writing them down!" A few of the quieter children really opened up this week, trying on alter-egos and creating strange new worlds. Here are just a few student responses:

I am from Uranus. I am very hairy and the only part of my body is my face and my face is the color brown. I eat Sasquatch for breakfast.
-Elijah

I am from Russia.
I look like Spanish people with blue hair.
I will rip the book and eat paper.
I wear stinky clothes.
I will go to stinky-stink school.
I am friends with a bathroom.
I was the President of the United States.
I was boss of the world.
I will be rich. I will be mean.
I will break the competitors.
I will break the school.
I will go in a book and eat all of the books.
I will hit the teacher.
The competitors will be mine in every school.
I will be the clock.
I will be the doors.
I will be the books.
-Hamara

I was a teacher when I was three months old.
Once I was a book.
My best friend is the boss of the world.
I'm from under the ground.
I look just like Mrs. Turnbaugh.
I beat up the principal.
-Sevda