Tuesday, February 17, 2009

"The Dirtiest Man In The World"

I love this book called "Where The Sidewalk Ends" and I love a poem in it that is "The Dirtiest Man In The World". It is written by a man called Shel Silverstein. I really like poems.

Oh I'm Dirty Dan, the world's dirtiest man,
I never have taken a shower.
I can't see my shirt - it's so covered with dirt,
And my ears have enough to grow flowers.

But the water is either a little too hot,
Or else it's a little too cold.
I'm musty and dusty and patchy and scratchy
And mangy and covered with mold.
But the water is always a little too hot,
Or else it's a little too cold.

I live in a pen with five hogs and a hen
And three squizzly lizards who creep in
My bed, and they itch as I squirm, and I twitch
In the cruddy old sheets that I sleep in.

If you looked down my throat with a flashlight, you'd note
That my insides are coated with rust.
I creak when I walk and I squeak when I talk,
And each time I sneeze I blow dust.

The thought of a towel and some soap make me howl,
And when people have something to tell me
They don't come and tell it - they stand back and yell it.
I think they're afraid they might smell me.

The bedbugs that leap on me sing me to sleep,
And the garbage flies buzz me awake.
They're the best friends I've found and I fear they might drown
So I never go too near a lake.

Each evening at nine I sit down to dine
With the termites who live in my chair,
And I joke with the bats and have intimate chats
With the cooties who crawl through my hair.
.
I'd brighten my life if I just found a wife,
But I fear that that never will be
Until I can find a girl, gentle and kind,
With a beautiful face and a sensitive mind,
Who sparkles and twinkles and glistens and shines -
And who's almost as dirty as me.

- Shel Silverstein


Go to: http://www.shelsilverstein.com/indexSite.html

(This poem and illustration were copied from Shel Silverstein's book of poems and drawings called "Where The Sidewalk Ends", pages 96 & 97.)

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