Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Countdown: #6

Peanut Butter Sandwich by Shel Silverstein

    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?”

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