My Kitten Is a Ninja
From the book A Festival for Frogs
My kitten is a ninja.
He wears a black disguise.
He sneaks up on me stealthily
and takes me by surprise.
I never hear him coming.
He doesn’t make a peep.
He hides, then glides in silently
and makes a flying leap.
I don’t know why he does it.
The reason isn’t clear.
He simply likes to tackle me
then swiftly disappear.
I wish that he was normal
and didn’t act like that.
My life would be so different if
I had an average cat.
I’d play with him, and pet him,
and treat him gingerly.
Instead, whenever he’s around
I get a ninjury.
— Kenn Nesbitt
Copyright © 2024. All Rights Reserved.
Reading Level: Grade 2
Topics: Animal Poems
Poetic Techniques: Anthropomorphism & Personification, Assonance, Imagery, Lyric & Dramatic Poems, Pun Poems, Wordplay
About This Poem
Before I wrote this poem, I had written a poem about getting injured while playing sports. I was searching for an illustration for that poem. For some reason, a search for the word “injury” turned up, among other things, a picture of some ninjas. I thought that was strange, and I wondered why. It occurred to me that if ninjas cause an injury, you could call it “a ninjury.”
Next, I just had to figure out who the ninja was, and who was getting injured. I have a couple of cats who are both good at hiding, and sometimes attack me when I’m petting them. So that’s all it took. My cat became the ninja and I was the one getting “ninjured” by him.
I also decided to use a lot of assonance in this poem. Assonance is when you repeat vowel sounds in nearby words, such as “hides / glides / silently” and “had / average / cat.” Can you find the other examples of assonance in this poem?
If you would like to read more poems about pets doing crazy things, check out my book The Tighty-Whitey Spider, which is mostly about animals doing extreme sports, or maybe just read “My Cat Knows Karate” and “My Puppy Punched Me in the Eye” here on the website.
From the book A Festival for Frogs
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