"Cat Plate"- Poetry Break from a New Book

Nye, N. S. (2008). Honeybee. New York: HarperCollins.


Introduction
Have you ever tried to get back at a parent? Discuss.

Cat Plate
by Naomi Shihab Nye

That’s what we used to do in our house,
says Lydia, when we were mad at our dad-
we served him on the cat plate.
He didn’t know, since he never fed the cat.
It made us laugh secretly in the kitchen-
the plate had a crack so maybe
some cat saliva had stuck in there.
It gave us a little buzz.

Once when he was being really mean,
he grabbed what he thought was tuna in
a glass container
but it was cat food. Our mother, washing dishes,
froze with her mouth wide open when she realized-
I shook my head, finger on my lips.
From the living room he said, This tuna
has taken on a new taste.
No one told him.

We just did our homework silently
at the kitchen table
and grinned when we caught each other’s eye.
There were all kinds of ways
we felt better about our lives back then
and sometimes they surprised us.


Extension
Invite the students to draw a scene or object from this poem.