Scare the house cleaner

Lori A. Powell

Life

Free verse

Big kids little kids
The prank is still the same
The target is the housecleaner
The fake bug is the game.

Open a kitchen drawer
It will be a surprise
Jump back with a little “yelp”
Poke it with a stick then realize

It’s just a fake bug made of plastic
the kind that kids play with.
But some times those fake bugs look real especially from a distance.

The ones who pull the prank
chuckle when they leave
They are never there to see the surprise
Yet they believe.

Over the years of housecleaning
the fake bug prank often happens to me
I guess it’s all part of doing this job
though I never find it funny.

Written by Lori A. Powell
8/4/2023

About this poem

Vacation rental homes are popular these days. Everyone knows that someone has to clean the house after the guests check out. Occasionally, there are guests that find humor in pulling a prank on the house cleaner.

Font size:

Collection PDF

Written on August 04, 2023

Submitted by musclegirl on August 05, 2023

: 41 sec read
: 118 Views

Quick analysis:

Scheme	XABA BCXC XXX XDCD XEXE XX
Closest metre	Iambic tetrameter
Characters	656
Words	139
Stanzas	6
Stanza Lengths	4, 4, 3, 4, 4, 2

Full analysis for Scare the house cleaner »

Lori A. Powell

I enjoy writing. I’ve written 2 children’s books. “Les Lobster” and “Stars are everywhere” I live in the forest where the river meets the ocean. It’s beautiful here. more…

All Lori A. Powell poems | Lori A. Powell Books

8 fans

Discuss the poem Scare the house cleaner with the community...

2 Comments

Notify me of new comments via email.

Symmetry60
I love this for a couple reasons: 1) My ex-girlfriend had her own house cleaning business and 2) We once made the HUGE mistake of playing a prank like this on our mom. We were kids and thought it would be hilarious to put a fake, plastic spider where we knew mom would see it. Well, see it she did. I don't remember much after that but waking up in traction pretty bloody and short on memory. LOL! Of course, I exaggerate, but she did slap the hell out of us for real. She found it about as funny as we found the arse whooping she gave us. :-P more »
LikeReply4 months ago
tims.29998
Very funny my grandkids try to pull this prank on me. It never works but I pretend it does to make them laugh. Very nice poem.
LikeReply4 months ago

Translation

Find a translation for this poem in other languages:

Select another language:

Citation

Use the citation below to add this poem to your bibliography:

Style:MLAChicagoAPA

"Scare the house cleaner" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/165587/scare-the-house-cleaner>.

Become a member!

Join our community of poets and poetry lovers to share your work and offer feedback and encouragement to writers all over the world!

The Web's Largest Resource for

Poets, Poems & Poetry

A Member Of The STANDS4 Network

More poems by

Lori A. Powell

April 2024

Poetry Contest

Join our monthly contest for an opportunity to win cash prizes and attain global acclaim for your talent.

Submissions due in...

days

hours

minutes

121 entries submitted — 29 remaining

Special Program

Earn Rewards!

Unlock exciting rewards such as a free mug and free contest pass by commenting on fellow members' poems today!

Our awesome collection of

Promoted Poems

Browse Poetry.com

#A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Quiz

Are you a poetry master?

Who wrote this? 'Look on my Works, ye Mightyand despair!'

A William Shakespeare

B P. B. Shelley

C William Wordsworth

D S.T. Coleridge