The Dirigible Balloon
Poetry for Children

Summer Itinerary

Anne’s off to Myrtle Beach,
Cho to Hudson Bay,
Graham to San Francisco,
Chip to Santa Fe.

Kat’s in Tallahassee,
Noor’s in Disneyland,
Matt’s in Nagasaki,
Nic’s in Amsterdam.

We stay home
but
once a week,
we walk down Main
to Chestnut Street,

past the market,
past the ferry,
straight into
the library.

We run our hands
across the shelves;
we pick out books
and find ourselves—

and
with each story
that we read,
we go everywhere
we dream.

About the Writer


Tracie Renee

Tracie is a poet and youth services librarian who lives, works, and dreams in suburban Chicago. A Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, she’s won the Grand Prize in poetry from Outrider Press three times and appeared in Journal of Modern Poetry, The Awakenings Review, Mothers Always Write, and the award-winning anthology Stories of Music. This is her first kidlit publication (and hopefully not the last).