Shel Silverstein

Sometimes I really miss having my dad

recite random poetry to me---usually of a nature

that my mother huffily disapproved of, but 

had to try hard not to laugh at along with us.

I really loved commuting with my dad my first year

of early college--one day it was raining and he sang a

song about rain drops falling on sad Tim's head all the 

way from Willard to Mantua. Good times. Here's some

stellar oldies and goodies:

"My beard grows down to my toes, 
I never wears no clothes, 
I wraps my hair 
Around my bare, 
And down the road I goes." 

---insert

Rasmussen children singing "Ba da

dum da dum dee dum dee dum dee dum."
— Shel Silverstein

""I cannot go to school today" 
Said little Peggy Ann McKay. 
"I have the measles and the mumps, 
A gash, a rash and purple bumps. 

My mouth is wet, my throat is dry. 
I'm going blind in my right eye. 
My tonsils are as big as rocks, 
I've counted sixteen chicken pox. 

And there's one more - that's seventeen, 
And don't you think my face looks green? 
My leg is cut, my eyes are blue, 
It might be the instamatic flu. 

I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke, 
I'm sure that my left leg is broke. 
My hip hurts when I move my chin, 
My belly button's caving in. 

My back is wrenched, my ankle's sprained, 
My 'pendix pains each time it rains. 
My toes are cold, my toes are numb, 

I have a sliver in my thumb. 

My neck is stiff, my voice is weak, 
I hardly whisper when I speak. 
My tongue is filling up my mouth, 

I think my hair is falling out. 

My elbow's bent, my spine ain't straight, 
My temperature is one-o-eight. 
My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear, 

There's a hole inside my ear. 

I have a hangnail, and my heart is ... 
What? What's that? What's that you say? 
You say today is .............. Saturday? 

G'bye, I'm going out to play!"" 
— Shel Silverstein