THE LONG-HAIRED BOY

by Shel Silverstein 

 

There was a boy in our town with long hair

I mean really long hair

And everybody pointed at him

And laughed at him

And made fun of him.

And when he walked down the street

The people would roar

And stick their tongues out

And make funny faces

And run in and slam their door

And shout at him from the window

Until he couldn't stand it anymore.

So he sat down and cried

Till his whole body shook,

And pretty soon his hair shook too,

And it flapped

And flapped

And he lifted

And flew

Straight up in the air like a helicopter.

Jenny Ricks saw him and dropped her

Knitting and screamed, "It's a flying kid!"

Lukey Hastings ran and hid

Under Old Man Merrill's car,

Miss Terance fainted, Henry Quist

Tried to shoot him down, but missed

"I thought he was a crow," he said.

And 'round he sailed all through the day,

Smiling in the strangest way,

With the wind in his hair

And the sun in his eyes.

We saw him swoop and bank and rise.

He brushed the treetops

And skimmed the grass

On Yerbey's lawn and almost crashed

Right into Hansen's silobut

Zoomed up in time and almost hit

The courthouse. Old Man Cooley bit

Right through his napkin when he saw

A kid fly through the diner door

And out of the window, tipping the ladder

Where Smokey was painting, he almost had a

Heart attackhe clung to a rafter.

The kid flew on

Us runnin' after,

Cheering and sweating

And screaming, "Hooray!"

Mayor Lowry shouted, "Hey

Come down here, kid. We'd like to say

How proud of you we are today.

Who ever thought our little

Town would have a hero in it?

So I'd like to proclaim this dayhey, kid!

Will you please come down for just a minute?"

But the flying kid did not come down.

He treaded air above the town,

Sort of cryin' and looking down

At all of us here on the ground.

Then up he flew, up into the clouds,

Flapping and flying so far and high,

Out past the hills and into the sky

Until a tiny speck against the sun

Was all we could see of him...then he was gone.

 

This free website was made using Yola.

No HTML skills required. Build your website in minutes.

Go to www.yola.com and sign up today!

Make a free website with Yola