Dedicated to Dirty Dan

I was going to save this poem for another day when my "Lame-Brainedness" kicked in again like it did Saturday and I can't think of anything interesting to write about. However, I learned recently that Dan over at Dan's Blah Blah Blog has never heard of Shel Silverstein. And this has been one of my favorite poems since I was a kid.

Forgive me for flooding this blog with poems from Shel-- But I had to dedicate this one to my dear friend Dan! Please visit his site, you'll understand the irony of this poem! The only simularity is the name-- I hope !












DIRTY DAN

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 squizzley 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 makes 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 friend I've found and I fear they might drown
So I ever 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, gently and kind,
With a beautiful face and a sensitive mind,
Who sparkles and twinkles and glistens and shines--
And who' almost as dirty as me!
-Shel Silverstein, "Where the Sidewalk Ends"