Bad Poetry: One Sister for Sale

"One sister for sale! One sister for sale!

One lying and spying young sister for sale!

This is not about my biological sister

(Though one is a blister and one is a twister).

It's about the sisterhood, likewise the brotherhood,

Of those who do evil and think they do rather good. 

They say banning books is the best way to get

Protected and sheltered from feeling upset

By writers who might not appreciate your type,

But underneath all of their posturing and hype,

Books where people might think and do things for themselves

Are the ones they remove from the library shelves.

They say information might go out of date,

But really what they mean is how much they hate

That anyone might make some increase in knowledge

Without paying outrageous fees to a college.

They say feelings are hurt if some type is left out,

But what they are doing is trying to tout

Books nobody ever liked, or ever will,

That readers would gladly send to the landfill,

In place of books readers have always enjoyed,

Because they express ideas 'Sis' wants destroyed.

One sister for sale! One sister for sale!

One prying and crying young sister for sale!

I'm really not kidding, so who'll start the bidding?

I've already put up with so much of her guff,

It would be hard to take her far away enough!

I don't even care if you treat the brat rough!

Why, even some lists of books that have been banned

Are sales pitches for books whose rejection was planned

And continue to participate in suppressing

Books that bring readers joy, learning, and blessing.

One sister for sale! One sister for sale!"

The proimpt at DVerse was to write a poem around a line from a banned book. Shel Silverstein's goofy, funny poems for kids (and the inner kids of adults) have been banned from some school libraries as likely to encourage unruly behavior, such as, in one poem,  trying to sell a younger sibling. Some of the lines of this verse are direct quotes from a short verse in Where the Sidewalk Ends.