The Underwear Tree
Outside, in our garden, you have to come see
the tree that we planted—an underwear tree.
Our underwear tree isn’t like normal plants;
it doesn’t grow fruit, it just grows underpants.
There aren’t any leaves on our underwear tree.
Instead, it grows briefs for my family and me.
It grows tighty-whities and cartoon-print shorts,
and colorful undies of all different sorts.
Some bloomers are blooming, some long johns as well,
but please be aware that they may have a smell.
The clothes on the underwear tree are the type
it’s better to harvest before they turn ripe!
— Kenn Nesbitt
Copyright © 2025. All Rights Reserved.
Reading Level: Grade 5
Topics: Imaginary Poems, Wacky Weirdness
Poetic Techniques: Descriptive Poems, Imagery
Word Count: 101
About This Poem
This poem grew out of my appreciation for the wonderfully silly and imaginative poetry of Jack Prelutsky. The first book of his that I ever read was his second “big book,” entitled Something Big Has Been Here, which contains his classic poem “As Soon as Fred Gets Out of Bed.” In the poem, Fred is a boy who wears his underwear on his head, and I started thinking… maybe it’s time I wrote an underwear poem of my own. That thought led me back to another favorite of Jack’s, “I’m Growing a Glorious Garden,” where musical instruments grow like flowers. And that got me wondering—what if you could grow underpants on trees? That’s how the underwear tree took root.
I had a blast imagining cartoon-print shorts and long johns blooming in the backyard, and I hope this poem makes readers laugh just as much as I did while writing it.
As an aside, two of my all-time favorite underwear poems are Jack Prelutsky’s “My Underdog Is Overweight” from It’s Raining Pigs and Noodles and Karla Kuskin’s delightfully odd “A Bug Sat in a Silver Flower” from Moon, Have You Met My Mother? If you haven’t read those yet, you’re in for a treat.
Worksheet
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