A Bedtime Story

I.
He was sitting up in his bed
With a sweet but dissatisfied look,
And then to his father he said,
“What did you bring that book…?”

II.
It was not that he’d fidget instead
Or whenever a nap he took that
“What did you bring that book that
I do not want to be read…?”

III.
Nor a filler of parents with dread, who
Would rituals nightly rebuke flat:
“What did you bring that book that
I do not want to be read to…?”

IV.
And pirates leer
And swill their rum;
Adventurers taunt
And never succumb;
For some words haunt,
From lips are wrung:
“I do not want
To be read to from.”

V.
“This tome, irrespective of plot,
Resembles without any doubt
The very book that you do not
Want to be read to from out…”

VI.
“Yes, that’s,” the suffering tot
Disgruntlement from a bout of,
“The book that I do not
Want to be read to from out of.”

VII.
A story at bedtime — a gentle good-bye —
Instead of a nightcap innocence will sup
To ride to the morning from this stirrup-cup;
“But what did you bring that book that I
Don’t want to be read to from out of up…?”

VIII.
“Oh, what did you,
Oh, bring that book,
Dear Father, you forgot?”

“Oh, what did you,
Oh, bring that book,
That book that I do not…?”

“That book that I do not, abed,
Alert for tales in store,
Do not, ah no, want to be read
To from out of up for?”