Motormouth

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by Sherryl Clark

he just held me

  for a long time

  and how Josh

  has never had

  any of that.

  I follow Josh

  outside

  to the bare backyard

  no bike

  no footy

  no garden

  we sit on the step

  far away

  a dog barks

  lonely

  he says,

  ‘I thought

  you’d gone home

  I thought

  you hated me’

  ‘nah,’

  I say,

  ‘you’re my mate

  even if you are

  pretty stupid’

  and I punch him

  on the arm.

  he asks me,

  ‘are you going

  to tell everyone?’

  I look at him

  ‘no –

  you are’

  ‘they’ll hate me’

  I grin

  ‘only for five minutes

  then you’ll be

  yesterday’s news’

  I don’t really know

  how the other kids

  will take it

  but I’ll be there

  to back him up

  no worries.

  he sits for a while

  watching

  next door’s cat

  tiptoe along

  the top of the fence

  then he goes inside

  to his room

  and rips down everything

  on the Alex Carter wall

  throws it all

  in the bin

  when it’s done

  he says,

  ‘can I come

  to your house?’

  we play frisbee

  with Chocker

  make fun of

  Leanna’s pink hair

  eat peanut butter sandwiches

  in front of the telly

  beat each other

  at video games

  when Dad arrives home

  he says,

  ‘how about you two

  come for a run?’

  we groan

  ‘yeah, OK’

  and race to share

  my bike.

  Sherryl Clark has written thirty-eight books for children, including Up a Tree, Boots and All and many titles in the Aussie Nibbles, Bites and Chomps series. Her most recent verse novel, Sixth Grade Style Queen (Not!), was an Honour Book in the 2008 CBC Award – Younger Readers category. She has published two collections of poetry for adults and is a co-editor of Poetrix magazine. Sherryl teaches fiction and poetry writing in the Diploma of Professional Writing & Editing at Victoria University TAFE, and lives in Melbourne with her husband.

  PUFFIN BOOKS

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)

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  Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London, WC2R 0RL, England

  First published by Penguin Group (Australia), 2010

  Text copyright © Sherryl Clark, 2010

  Illustrations copyright © Evi O., 2010

  The moral right of the author has been asserted.

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  ISBN: 978-1-74-253042-0

 

 

 


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