Skin Stealer

I blame/thank Shel Silverstein for a good-sized chunk of my weirdness...this poem in particular, which I can still recite by heart...

Skin Stealer
by Shel Silverstein

This evening I unzipped my skin
And carefully unscrewed my head,
Exactly as I always do
When I prepare myself for bed.
And while I slept a coo-coo came
As naked as could be
And put on the skin
And screwed on the head
That once belonged to me.
Now wearing my feet
He runs through the street
In a most disgraceful way,
Doin' things and sayin' things
I'd never do or say.
Ticklin' the children
And kickin' the men
And dancin' the ladies away.
So if he makes your bright eyes cry
Or makes your poor head spin,
That scoundrel you see
Is not really me--
He's the coo-coo
Who's wearing my skin.

And the illustrations, oh dear! Burned into my brain for life. Thank you, Shel.



Found this movie of The Giving Tree while reading more about Shel's life. I bought the book for one of my tutoring students a couple of years ago and he made me read it to him over and over and over and then he read it to me over and over and over, and I think it got better each time...