Writers as Kids: Dog on Wheels

by Chris Killen

Pictured: Megan Martin (left) with her sister Missy

For Christmas this year, I want a dog and a bicycle at the same time. 

I can’t decide which one I want more, so I want both of them together. 

Also, the dog has to be cute. 

The dog has to be on the front of the bicycle at all times. 

If I get a dog on a bicycle this Christmas, I promise I will feed it and pet it and give it

lots of water to drink and not crash the bicycle and hurt the dog or leave it in the

garage to die or anything. 

I have thought about a dog on a bicycle a lot. 

I have thought about it for at least seven months. 

It is all I think about at nights.  

I just lie there in bed, thinking about it. 

Sometimes it’s hard to go to sleep. 

I think this is what ‘insomnia’ means. 

In hot weather, we will go out riding. 

We will go down the steep hill at the end, and I won’t have to peddle, and the dog will

stick its tongue out into the wind and try to eat insects.

I will call the dog and the bicycle ‘Racer’. 

I think this is a good halfway name between a dog and a bicycle. 

And when I’m in a store or somewhere, I won’t need to chain up the bicycle because

the dog will bark at any thieves who try to steal it.

Also, when it’s cold weather, I can bring it into the lounge with me because it is a dog

as well as a bicycle and everyone knows it’s cruel to leave a dog outside and mom

won’t be able to say no even if it gets oil and dirt on everything. 

Ha ha. 

One final thing I ask for is that the dog should be put right at the top of the bicycle at

the front: imagine it is a fairy on a Christmas tree.

I have thought about it a lot, and decided that this is the best place for a dog on a

bicycle, otherwise it might peddle away on its own and escape.

Comments

[megan martin]

Thanks, Chris - this is hilarious! I just promoted you on facebook so that all the world can read this poem!

[kathryn regina]

i love this poem too.