Snake Mistake
From the book The Tighty-Whitey Spider
One morning in my bedroom
I was startled by a snake,
so I picked him up and took him out
and threw him in the lake.
He returned a minute later,
meaning, no, he didn’t drown,
so I put him on my bicycle
and rode him out of town.
It was hardly half an hour
till he turned up in my room,
so I packed him in a parcel
and I shipped him to Khartoum.
When I found him back again
on the succeeding afternoon
I went looking for a way that
I could blast him to the moon.
When I couldn’t find a rocket
it was then I knew that, dang,
a snake is yours forever
once he eats your boomerang.
— Kenn Nesbitt
Copyright © 2010. All Rights Reserved.
Reading Level: Grade 4
Topics: Animal Poems
Poetic Techniques: Alliteration, Irony, Narrative Poems
From the book The Tighty-Whitey Spider
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