Read Where The Sidewalk Ends for Free Online

the shoreside by the sea.
    And the turtle said, “My dearie.
    May I sit with you? I’m weary.”
    And the bagpipe didn’t say no.
    Said the turtle to the bagpipe, “I have walked this lonely shore,
    I have talked to waves and pebbles-but I’ve never loved before.
    Will you marry me today, dear?
    Is it ‘No’ you’re going to say, dear?”
    But the bagpipe didn’t say no.
    Said the turtle to his darling, “Please excuse me if I stare.
    But you have the plaidest skin, dear.
    And you have the strangest hair.
    If I begged you pretty please, love.
    Could I give you just one squeeze, love?”
    And the bagpipe didn’t say no.
    Said the turtle to the bagpipe, “Ah, you love me. Then confess!
    Let me whisper in your dainty ear and hold you to my chest.”
    And he cuddled her and teased her
    And so lovingly he squeezed her.
    And the bagpipe said, “Aaooga.”

    Said the turtle to the bagpipe, “Did you honk or bray or neigh?
    For ‘Aaooga’ when you’re kissed is such a heartless thing to say.
    Is it that I have offended?
    Is it that our love is ended?”
    And the bagpipe didn’t say no.
    Said the turtle to the bagpipe, “Shall I leave you, darling wife?
    Shall I waddle off to Woedom? Shall I crawl out of your life?
    Shall I move, depart and go, dear-
    Oh, I beg you tell me ‘No,’ dear!”
    But the bagpipe didn’t say no.
    So the turtle crept off crying and he ne’er came back no more,
    And he left the bagpipe lying on that smooth and sandy shore.
    And some night when tide is low there.
    Just walk up and say, “Hello, there,”
    And politely ask the bagpipe if this story’s really so.
    I assure you, darling children, that the bagpipe won’t say “No.”

    RUDY FELSH
    Rudy Felsh
    Knows how to belch
    Better than anyone ever did.
    Margo says that Rudy Felsh
    Is a nasty vulgar kid.
    Someday he will go to hell
    Or jail or Canada, but now
    Every night I pray that first
    Rudy Felsh will show me how.

    FRED?
    From out of the cold Caribbean
    Into the Desert Libyan
    There crawled a strange amphibian.
    And we shall call him “Fred.”
    You say let’s call him “Ted”?
    Or maybe “Lou” or “Jed”?
    But I want to call him “Fred”!
    You like “Maurice” instead?
    Or “Barnaby” or “Red”
    Or “Lucifer” or “Ned”?
    Well, anyway, he’s dead.

    THE LONG-HAIRED BOY
    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 silo-but
    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 attack-he 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 day-hey,