"When my kids first started studying poetry in school and had to compose some of it, I, as their loving father, felt compelled to be an encouragement to them. Poetry was very boring to me as a child, and I never really learned to enjoy it until I was in college. Therefore I felt it my duty to show them that poetry could be interesting and fun. If I could gross them out in the process, so much the better.

“Roses are red” is one of those basic poems that everyone is
familiar with, so I began there. As I recall, this poem started out as,
“Roses are red, and their odor is sweet,
But if smell’s what you want, then try sniffing your feet.”
(written as a tribute to my sister, and to one of my daughters, who seems to have inherited the same gene for fetid feet).

Time changes all things, and eventually it mutated into the version you see below.

As I hoped, the final product did gross them out, and, while I have been discussing poetry with my daughters lately, both of them have mentioned, (with seeming trepidation), that they were surprised that it hadn’t surfaced on this site.

Well, you know how a Dad hates to disappoint his children.
"