I really must confess my locker is a mess.
Tucked inside are many things I’ve tried to hide.

Books that are overdue,
A birthday card meant for Sue,
A wad of gum I’d like to chew,
Some tissues from when I had the flu.

A pencil, an eraser, a rubber snake,
A fishing hat I found at the lake.

Some licked lollipops all bit in half,
A picture of me that makes me laugh.
Seven jackets that I forgot,
A rock that I found in the parking lot.

A science project due today,
A note; from whom, it doesn’t say.
A gross gym sock; can’t find the match.
My Girl Scout vest that’s missing a patch.

Lots of paper all waded up,
A paper plate, and a paper cup.

Math homework from three months ago,
A pair of gloves I used in the snow.
And I have a hunch that this is might be a moldy lunch.

You may be thinking, “that is enough!”
But listen to what’s coming up.

I have another secret in me,
It may not be something that you wish to see.

And before I tell you
You might have taken a guess
That just like my locker,
My backpack is a terrible MESS!

My backpack eats up everything;
It is truly a horrendous thing.

Inside that bulky backpack there’s a lot of silly stuff.
Just opening the thing is very very tough.

Here I will tell you what lies
Hidden behind the zipper.
Some googly eyes,
And a rubber flipper.

A bouncy ball,
My leaf collection from last fall,
And shoes that make me extra tall.

Where I got all of this, I can’t even say.
Oh look! My other gym sock
With a note inside it from my friend May.

Two textbooks that I lost,
Garbage that I thought I tossed,
Another rotten lunch,
And my favorite bracelet all in a bunch.

This backpack’s mess is bad,
But its smell is worse.
It is as though
It’s been lived in by a horse.

It truly reeks of landfill…
What’s this I found? A twenty-dollar bill?
Oh, I remember, I stole that off the window sill.

A wind-up toy that’s all unwinded,
And a binder that’s all unbinded.
Chunks of eraser from a hundred and twenty pencils,
And from art class, some flower stencils.

Every time I lift my bag
I fall right to the floor.
From doing this so often,
My back is very sore.

This problem, I must solve.
This problem shall dissolve.

All I have to do to make it go away
Is take everything home with me today.
If I simply put it under my bed,
It will probably just drift out of my head.

And now, under my bed there are
Library books still overdue,
A birthday card still meant for Sue.

Twenty bucks, I’ll save that for later,
And where did I get this rubber alligator?

My worries could be leaving me,
But what I have failed see
Is that this is just the beginning
And that my luck is thinning.

The stuff, it just seems to overtake.
This idea was a big mistake.
I need to find a new place for it,
My brother might be able to endure it.

So I take it all to his room across the hall,
And I sneak it in and shut the door.
And now I don’t have to deal with it anymore.