National Poetry Month 2020: Trolls by Sarah Thompson

For National Poetry Month 2020, we present the Poetry and prose from our Members.

TROLLS
by Sarah Thompson

A troll controls my backpack
So that he can hitch a ride.
He should be guarding bridges,
But he says he’s occupied.

My troll demands a pittance
Every time I crack the top.
My back will break from pennies
If this troll won’t ever stop.

He eats my pens and pencils
Like my school supplies are snacks.
He dines on work for math class;
All that work I won’t get back!

He tears the strings from string cheese
When he breaks into my lunch.
He likes to drain my thermos
Of hot soup or icy punch.

He’s got to leave my book bag;
I won’t change my mind a smidge.
Rude trolls are not for backpacks . . .

Do you maybe have a bridge?

–from Sarah Thompson’s book Yard Art, A Collection of Children’s Poetry (Missing Goat Press, January 2020). Illustrated by Bree Stallings.
Follow Sarah Thompson on Twitter @authorFT