The Dog Ate Our Dinner
From the book The Elephant Repairman
The table was set for Thanksgiving this year.
Our aunts and our uncles and cousins were here.
Our parents had put out our holiday feast,
and that’s when our doggy turned into a beast.
He jumped on the table and wolfed down the hams.
He polished off all the potatoes and yams.
He gobbled the turkey, the gravy, and greens,
then swallowed the stuffing and all the green beans.
He crammed down the cranberry sauce and the rolls,
and licked every morsel of food from the bowls.
And, when we at last got ahold of our dog,
his lips were still dripping with pie and eggnog.
It’s sort of a shame, but it’s totally clear
we’re going to have to be careful next year
if we want some pie or potatoes or meat,
since this year we only have dog food to eat.
— Kenn Nesbitt
Copyright © 2022. All Rights Reserved.
Reading Level: Grade 5
Topics: Animal Poems, Food Poems, Holiday Poems, Poems about Friends and Family, Thanksgiving
Poetic Techniques: Alliteration, Assonance, Imagery, List Poems, Narrative Poems
Word Count: 148
About This Poem
True story… one day a few years my family had ordered pizza for delivery. When the pizza arrived, we set the boxes on the dining room table and went into the kitchen to get dishes and something to drink. By the time we returned to the dining room, our dog, Jesse, had jumped up on an chair, and then the table, and had eaten almost an entire pizza.
Here’s a picture of Jesse, under the dining room table, looking guilty.
After that day, we were much more careful to make sure he couldn’t get up on the table and eat our dinner.
I thought this incident might make a good subject for a poem, but decided to make it about a much more important holiday meal, rather than just a pizza. I hope you enjoy the result.
Worksheet
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From the book The Elephant Repairman
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