Things I’m Not Good At

By Jeff Moss 1942–1998 Jeff Moss

What a shame I’m not good at making my bed

Or washing the dinner dishes.

What a pity I’m awful at broccoli-eating

And feeding my sister's fishes.

So sad I’ve no talent for cleaning my room,

All those jobs—it’s so hard to get through them.

(If I tell you I’m no good at those kinds of things,

Maybe then you won’t ask me to do them.)

Jeff Moss, “Things I’m Not Good At” from The Butterfly Jar. Copyright © 1989 by Jeff Moss. Reprinted with the permission of Bantam Books, a division of Random House, Inc.

Source: Kids Pick the Funniest Poems (1991)

Biography

"I think my main goals in whatever I do are to entertain the audience, and to teach them a little bit, leave them a tiny bit better off than when I found them," Jeff Moss said in an interview with Something about the Author ( SATA). Mossthe original head writer and composer/lyricist for the groundbreaking children's television series Sesame Streethas penned many of the program's best known songs, including "Rubber Duckie" and . . .

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