My Grandma Bought a Rocking Chair
From the book The Elephant Repairman
My grandma bought a rocking chair
and mounted it on wheels.
She rides it all around the town.
She loves the way it feels.
I’ve never seen her happier
than speeding down the hills
and jumping off of skateboard ramps
to demonstrate her skills.
Then grandma whoops and hollers
when her rocker catches air.
It’s fun to see her soaring
in her awesome rocking chair.
She’s not some kind of maniac.
She hasn’t lost control.
She got this chair because, you see,
she likes to rock and roll.
— Kenn Nesbitt
Copyright © 2022. All Rights Reserved.
Reading Level: Grade 3
Topics: Poems about Friends and Family, Sports
Poetic Techniques: Imagery, Narrative Poems, Pun Poems
About This Poem
This week my mother-in-law — my children’s grandmother — decided to buy a new chair. When she left to go shopping, I thought she was going to buy a rocking chair, which is where the idea for this poem came from. Here’s a picture of my kids’ grandma in her new chair.
As you can see, she ended up buying a recliner, not a rocker, but by then the poem was mostly finished. Also, her new chair doesn’t have wheels. It would be cool if it did, but “recline and roll” just doesn’t have the same ring to it. So I hope you enjoy the poem as it is.
From the book The Elephant Repairman
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