Please Don’t Prank Your Parents
From the book The Elephant Repairman
When April Fool’s Day comes this year
please follow this advice:
You shouldn’t prank your parents.
Nope. That isn’t very nice.
To make it easy, here’s a list
of things you shouldn’t do:
The bathroom floor is not the place
to put your plastic poo.
Don’t turn the family photos
upside down around the house.
And never tape the underside
of mom’s computer mouse.
Don’t change the menus on the TV
into Gunganese.
Don’t offer dad a sandwich
with the plastic on the cheese.
Don’t place a piece of tinfoil
in their bed beneath the sheet.
Don’t stick some ketchup packets
underneath the toilet seat.
You really shouldn’t use the salt
to fill the sugar bowl.
Of course, leave all the batteries
in each remote control.
Don’t set the clocks an hour ahead
to make them think they’re late.
And bubble wrap beneath the bathmat
might make them irate.
So, that’s a list of April Fool’s Day
pranks you shouldn’t do.
(Unless you need to get them back
for pranks they played on you.)
— Kenn Nesbitt
Copyright © 2022. All Rights Reserved.
Reading Level: Grade 4
Topics: April Fool's Day, Holiday Poems, Other Holidays, Poems about Friends and Family
Poetic Techniques: Alliteration, List Poems, Lyric & Dramatic Poems
Word Count: 180
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From the book The Elephant Repairman
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