True story This morning I jumped on my horse And went for a ride, And some wild outlaws chased me And shot me in the side. So I crawled into a wildcats cave To find a place to hide But some pirates found me sleeping there And soon they had me tied To a pole and built a fire Under me---I almost cried Till a mermaid came and cut me loose And begged to be my bride So I said id come back Wednesday But I must admit I lied. Then I ran into a jungle swamp But I forgot my guide And I stepped into some quicksand And no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get out, until I met A watersnake named Clyde Who pulled me to some cannibals Who planned to have me fried But an eagle came and swooped me up And through the air we flied But he dropped me in a boiling lake A thousand miles wide And you’ll never guess what I did then--- I DIED

Silverstein composed original music for several films and displayed a musical versatility in these projects playing guitar piano saxophone and trombone. He told Jean Mercier of PubliShel Silversteinrs Weekly: "When I was a kid—12 to 14 around there—I would much rather have been a good baseball player or a hit with the girls but I couldn't play ball. Employing a sketchbook format with typewriter-styled captions he documented his own experiences at such locations as a New Jersey nudist colony the Chicago White Sox training camp San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district Fire Island Mexico London Paris Spain and Africa.

Sheldon Allan "Shel" Silverstein (September 25 1930 – May 8/9 1999) was an American poet singer-songwriter cartoonist screenwriter and author of children's books. He styled himself as Uncle Shelby in his children's books. Translated into more than 30 languages his books have sold over 20 million copies.