T'was the Night Before School

T'was the night before school starts and all through the town,

The teachers were working, not playing around.

The bulletin boards were all designed and completed,

The parents were cheering,

summer finally depleted.

By eight the kids are washed

and tucked into bed,

where memories of homework

fill them with dread.

New pencils, new folders, new notebooks too,

new teachers, new friends, the anxiety grew.

The parents just giggled when they heard of this fright

and shouted upstairs-GO TO BED-IT'S A SCHOOL NIGHT!

All that needed to happen was one little thing —

The children should come,

and those bells, they should ring.

Unsure smiles were seen 

as they ran through the door.

Ready to learn this year, so much more!

Their bags were all stuffed

with school supplies anew.

And rules and pencils,

with erasers to chew.

The teachers, they celebrate with cheer in their eyes.

How we welcome that first day, our students a surprise.

No more time to prepare, no more time to consider,

Had we done enough, or would their enthusiasm pitter?

That if only we had another week to prepare,

such lessons we'd have, oh how the parents would stare!

But their eyes how they twinkle, their smiles so merry.

Their little cheeks became rosy like a cherry.

Into the room they rush, to their seats they bound,

I had better find a way to compose myself somehow.

When all of a sudden I hear,

A child in the back with an excited smile and voice so clear

"Teacher, 

what are we going to learn this year?"