I asked my father for a pet.
He said, “I’ll take you shopping.”
My father took me to a store
where animals were hopping.

He asked me, “Which one do you like?”
So I picked out a puppy,
a parakeet, a rabbit,
plus a gerbil and a guppy.

I also picked a monkey
and a yellow Siamese cat,
a turtle, snake, and lizard,
plus a very big white rat.

My dad said, “If you want a pet,
then you will have to feed it.”
Instead, I picked a storybook.
I cannot wait to read it.

Text © Bruce Lansky, reprinted from If Pigs Could Fly…and Other Deep Thoughts published by Meadowbrook Press. Illustration © Stephen Carpenter. Any copying or use of this poem or illustration without consent is unlawful.

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