I Thought I'd Tell A Story Being Careful With My Words

I thought I'd tell A story
Being careful with my words
A story I read in a book
Rephrasing things you’ve heard
The story from a treasure
Gained from my thrift shop habit
I found a silly thrift store book
Called simply “Runny Babbit”
Shel Silverstein, the author
Jumbles words by changing letters
"Millie Woose" for Willie Moose
And as you read it just gets better
It’s a fun and happy thing to do
To play with English proper
If Silverstein can, then I say,
“Me too.” (Who’s stere to hop her?)
I’ll stop just now I know I can
It’s tharder than you hink
Try it now, you gilly soose
Mecious Prink for Precious Mink

(That was fun!)


From the book's preface:
Way down in the green woods
Where the animals all play
They do things and they say things
In a different sort of way-
Instead of sayin "purple hat,"
They all say, "hurple pat."
Instead of saying "Feed the cat,"
They just say "ceed the fat."
So if you say, "Let's bead a rook
That's billy as can se,"
You're talkin' Runny Babbit talk
Just like mim and he.