Poems with Lois Letchford (and Matthew) - Hypnotized

30 Nov 2020 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

1:54

In this short YouTube video, author Lois Letchford introduces a poetry sharing session with her student Matthew. Lois briefly mentions her memoir Reversed and invites Matthew to read his poem titled “Hypnotized.” Matthew delivers a playful, rhythmic piece that mimics a hypnotist’s commands, alternating between absurd demands (e.g., “Mow the lawn for half an hour,” “Wash out all my underwear”) and the immediate reversal of each command (“Do it yourself”). The poem ends with a mock awakening and a tongue‑in‑cheek question about the experience. The overall tone is light‑hearted and conversational, showcasing a casual educational interaction centered on poetry performance.

Chapters

Hello, I'm Lois Letchford, author of the book Reversed: A Memoir and a Literacy Problem Solver, sharing poems with my student Matthew today. Over to you, Matthew, tell us what you're going to read.
Matthew, I'm going to be reading Hypnotized. How would you like to get hypnotized? Stare deep, deep, deep into my eyes. Now you're getting drowsy, falling deep, deep, deep asleep. And now I have you under my power. Mow the lawn for half an hour. How about you mow your own lawn? Shine my shoes and trim my hair. Trim your own hair. Wash out my— wash out all my underwear. Disgusting. Wash out your own underwear. Do my homework. Scratch my back. No, do your own homework. Cook me up a great stack of pancakes and wash my plate. No, do it yourself. Get some nails and fix up the gate. Fix up your own gate! Now wake up. How was it? What? Wake up and open your eyes. Wasn't it fun to get hypnotized? No!