Poetry / Mutating Shoe Bunny

I was going through the process from a child’s point of you. When I was a kid, sometimes tying a shoe was taught with a little story about a bunny going under a shrub to help kids remember. It confused the hell out of me when I was a kid. I couldn’t grasp it, b/c I saw strings. I understood the loops representing bunny ears and therefore a bunny, but when those same ears became a shrub, yet still the bunny going under the shrub… Made no sense to me. I didn’t learn to tie my shoes until someone bothered to show me without the silly story.

Point of view, rather. I don’t know how I did that, but oh well.

I’m glad you liked it. The assignment was to write a poem based on an early memory. I had the hardest time learning to tie my shoes b/c of the little story thing. It took me forever, and I only got it when someone else tried to teach my without letting bunnies enter into it.

A lot of children were taught how to tie their shoes with a little story about a bunny and a shrub that, frankly, confused the hell out of me as a kid. This is just a lighthearted piece from the point of view of a child learning that way.

From the looks of the comments you’ve received, it appears that I am the only one who has never heard of the bunny/shrub shoe-tying gimmick. I guess I was right in finding this whimsical. You captured the child’s feeling of confusion perfectly, and now that I know what the poem is referring to, I enjoy it that much more. :)

Well thanks. You’re not the only one; I think it just depends on where and when you grew up.

i suppose that is true. Thank you for the clarification. :)

lol You probably feel very similar to how I did when I was in this situation. I’m guessing you weren’t taught to tie your shoes with the bunny story. The shoe strings are doing the looping and, supposedly, making bunnies and shrubs through the whole thing.

Crap! Damn my parents for denying me this spectacular skill! The funny thing is I actually do tie my shoes that way (I guess, I start with rabbit ears) and my brother does it another way (one ear and then something weird)
Feel free to stretch the ears on my avatar ;)

hehe I actually do the one ear thing. That’s how my mom showed me after I told her I couldn’t figure it out. The other way might have been easier to learn, if the story/rhyme thing hadn’t confused me.

I’m getting the same thing in reviews that I got out loud in class. :-) Generally, if people were tuaght to tie their shoes using the bunny method, they understand it easily, and if they weren’t taught that way they’re as confused as the narrator. The exercise was to write a poem based on an early childhood memory. I chose when I was learning to tie my shoes. My kindegarten teacher used a little story mixed in with the over under around and through thing. It confused me to no end. This is from that point of view.

lol! after i posted and read the other reviews i understood about the ‘bunny method’ which i obviously had no clue about! there is something delightful about your poem, refreshingly fanciful, yet because it is so obtuse you would have to know the subject or method in advance to understand what it is all about. interesting approach to the assignment i must say, written from the child’s perspective. :)

Thank you. :-)

It’s funny, I didn’t realize that imagination was my implied theme. This isn’t meant so much for children as from a child’s point of view. The child’s problem is that they aren’t seeing the images that the adult is telling them are there. The child sees laces. The adult is telling them that the laces are a bunny and a shrub. I am going to post the new version of the poem, with its minor revisions (mostly stanza breaks). Thanks for your input.