Poetry Week by Week: Guest Poet Ellie Terry

Today's guest poet has been a guest on my blog before. Ellie Terry is a talented poet and author who shared with us last year a little helpful advice about writing in rhyme. Since then, Ellie has sold her very first book, a middle grade verse novel titled FORGET ME NOT, which will hit the shelves in March 2017. That's less than a year from now. Not sooo long to wait, right?

Ellie has decided to share a deleted poem from one of the drafts of FORGET ME NOT.

RESPECTABLE

Throughout the next three days,

I manage to be

            respectable

to Beatriz.

            Respectable

when she snores all night.

            Respectable

when she accidentally 

drops my toothbrush in the toilet.

            Respectable

when Reno takes us bowling

and she cheats.

            Respectable

that's me.

© Ellie Terry

I love this poem because, even though it's unclear who the narrator is, or who Beatriz is, or what the relationship between the two is, it IS clear that the narrator is unhappy about her current situation. She comes across as a little sassy, don't you think? 

Thank you for sharing this poem with us, Ellie!

About Ellie:

Ellie Terry writes heartfelt contemporary fiction for middle-grade readers, and funny poetry for all ages. Her middle-grade debut, FORGET ME NOT, a free verse novel about a girl with Tourette syndrome, will be published Spring 2017 by Feiwel & Friends, an imprint of Macmillan. She lives in southern Utah with her husband, three kids, two zebra finches, and a Russian desert tortoise.

Follow Ellie on Twitter: @ellieterrybooks

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