The morning is quiet.
There’s nothing I hear.
I think there’s a riot
of hush in my ear,
a growl that is purring,
a sleep without snoring,
a monster not stirring,
a lion not roaring,
a shaking that’s steady,
a wave that’s not breaking.
I’m rested and ready.
It’s time to be waking.
Robert Schechter’s poetry for children has appeared in Highlights, Cricket, Spider, Ladybug, The Caterpillar, Blast Off, Countdown, and many anthologies published by Bloomsbury, National Geographic, Macmillan, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and the Emma Press. Robert also writes for adults and has won both the Willis Barnstone Translation Prize and the X.J. Kennedy Parody Award. His verse often appears in the Washington Post and the Spectator as part of their weekly humor competitions. Robert edits the children’s poetry section of Better Than Starbucks.