Summary

The next poem is titled “How I Got My Name,” and Lonnie recalls his mother laughing and dancing to the song “Locomotion.” She loved the song so much that she named her son Lonnie Collins Motion so that he could be nicknamed Locomotion. The next poem is titled “Describe Somebody.” Lonnie begins by describing Ms. Marcus's physical attributes, including her hair, but he stops and looks around the room. Three boys in the room, Lamont, Angel, and Eric are clearly not interested in poetry. Angel is good at science, and Lamont is good at drawing. Lonnie and Miss Edna once attended a church where Eric sang beautifully, though Lonnie knows Eric would be angry if Lonnie told anyone about that.

The next poem is titled “Epistle Poem.” Lonnie addresses this poem to his father, in the form of an epistle. He cites a...