My Father Can’t Find Me
From the book My Dog Likes to Disco
My father can’t find me.
He says that it’s weird,
I seem to have vanished.
I just disappeared.
My mother can’t see me.
She’s looking around.
She’s calling my name
but I cannot be found.
My brother and sister
both want me to play.
They’re searching the house
but I’ve faded away.
I thought that my family
would all be amused,
but even our dog is
completely confused.
I know it sounds strange
but I’m starting to think
I shouldn’t take baths
in invisible ink.
— Kenn Nesbitt
Copyright © 2021. All Rights Reserved.
Reading Level: Grade 2
Topics: Poems about Friends and Family, Wacky Weirdness
Poetic Techniques: Alliteration
About This Poem
When I was about nine years old, I was fascinated with invisible ink. I loved the idea of being able to write secret messages that no one could read unless they knew the paper wasn’t really blank, and how to make the message appear.
Sometimes I would buy special invisible ink pens that had a tip at one end for writing invisible messages, and another tip at the other end that would make the writing appear when you rubbed it.
I also found out that if you use a fountain pen, but fill it with lemon juice instead of ink, you could write secret messages that would appear when you heated the paper.
When I was a kid, I also thought it would be neat if you could somehow become invisible. If you were invisible, you could run around doing whatever you wanted and no one would know it was you.
When I dreamed up this poem, I simply put these two ideas together. Maybe you could turn yourself invisible by dipping your entire body in invisible ink! I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t actually work, but I still think it’s a fun idea.
If you would like to learn to write your own secret messages (or poems!) in invisible ink, check out this activity plan. Or, if you’d like to read more poems about all sorts of invisible things, check these out:
From the book My Dog Likes to Disco
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