“Don’t suck your thumb,”
my mother said.
I answered, “Why?”
and scratched my head.
She said, “It’s dumb!
Now go to bed.”
That night I sucked my toe instead.

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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