Shel Silverstein

When I was in the 3rd grade (I was in public school at the time now I am homeschooled) My teacher read a few poems from Shel Silverstein's book Where the Sidewalk Ends and I loved the poems they were fun and far from stuffy. His style is amusing and it keeps your attention throw his drawings along with the poems and kids LOVE it. My siblings do! Here are a few of my favorites :)







 Sick





'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 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 nose is 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 is 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! '

Peanut-Butter Sandwich

I’ll sing you a story of a silly young king

Who played with the world at the end of a string,

But he only loved one single thing --

And that was just a peanut-butter sandwich.





His scepter and his royal gowns,

His regal throne and golden crowns

Were brown and sticky from the mounds

And drippings from each peanut-butter sandwich.





His subjects all were silly fools

For he had passed a royal rule

That all that they could learn in school

Was how to make a peanut-butter sandwich.





He would not eat his sovereign steak,

He scorned his soup and kingly cake,

And told his courtly cook to bake

An extra-sticky peanut-butter sandwich.





And then one day he took a bite

And started chewing with delight,

But found his mouth was stuck quite tight

From that last bite of peanut-butter sandwich.





His brother pulled, his sister pried,

The wizard pushed, his mother cried,

“My boy’s committed suicide

From eating his last peanut-butter sandwich!”





The dentist came, and the royal doc.

The royal plumber banged and knocked,

But still those jaws stayed tightly locked.

Oh darn that sticky peanut-butter sandwich!





The carpenter, he tried with pliers,

The telephone man tried with wires,

The firemen, they tried with fire,

But couldn’t melt that peanut-butter sandwich.





With ropes and pulleys, drills and coil,

With steam and lubricating oil --

For twenty years of tears and toil --

They fought that awful peanut-butter sandwich.





Then all his royal subjects came.

They hooked his jaws with grapplin’ chains

And pulled both ways with might and main

Against that stubborn peanut-butter sandwich.





Each man and woman, girl and boy

Put down their ploughs and pots and toys

And pulled until kerack! Oh, joy --

They broke right through that peanut-butter sandwich.





A puff of dust, a screech, a squeak --

The king’s jaw opened with a creak.

And then in voice so faint and weak --

The first words that they heard him speak



Were, “How about a peanut-butter sandwich?”








Smart






My dad gave me one dollar bill

'Cause I'm his smartest son,

And I swapped it for two shiny quarters

'Cause two is more than one!



And then I took the quarters

And traded them to Lou

For three times -- I guess he don't know

That three is more than two!





Just then, along came old blind Bates

And just 'cause he can't see

He gave me four nickles for my three dimes,

And four is more than three!





And I took the nickels to Hiram Coombs

Down at the seed-feed store,

And the fool gave me five pennies for them,

And five is more than four!





And then I went and showed my dad,

And he got red in the cheeks

And closed his eyes and shook his head--

Too proud of me to speak!