Too Cold!
I asked dad to turn up the heater
to warm up the icy cold air.
He told me, “Go stand in the corner.
It’s 90 degrees over there.”
— Kenn Nesbitt
Copyright © 2024. All Rights Reserved.
Reading Level: Grade 3
Topics: Poems about Friends and Family, Seasonal Poems
Poetic Techniques: Narrative Poems, Pun Poems
Word Count: 29
About This Poem
When I was a kid, any time I complained about the house being too cold in the winter, my father would either tell me to put on a sweater or to go run around the block to warm up. Turning up the heat was not an option. After all, heating the house costs money; the more you turn it up, the more it costs.
Lately, even though it’s spring as I write this, it has been too cold in my house, so I got to thinking… Parents sometimes tell their kids to go sit or stand in the corner as a punishment. Corners are often “right angles,” also known as “90-degree angles.” So I thought it would be funny for a dad to tell his kid to go stand where it’s 90 degrees, even though that doesn’t mean it’s warm.
Has anything like this ever happened to you? What do your parents say when you tell them the house is too cold? Do they tell you to put on a coat or a sweater, do they make a joke like the dad in this poem, or do they turn the heat up?
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