My Nose Garden, by Shel Silverstein

I have rowses and rowses of noses and noses,

And why they all growses I really can’t guess.

No lillies or roses, just cold-catching noses,

And when they all blowses, it’s really a mess.

They runs and they glowses, these sneezity noses,

They drips and they flowses, they blooms and they

dies.

But you can’t bring no noses to fine flower

showses

And really expect them to give you a prize.

But each mornin’

I goeses to water

with hoses

These rowses of noses

that I cannot sell,

These red sniffly

noses that cause all

my woeses,

Why even the crowses

complain that they

smell.

Why noses, not roses?

Well, nobody

knowses.

Why do you supposes they growses this thick?

But since there’s no roses come gather some noses--

I guarantee each one’s a good nose to pick.

From “Falling Up” by Shel Silverstein (HarperCollins: $16.95; 176 pp.) This new collection of 140 poems for children is Silverstein’s first book in 15 years. His other books include the best-selling collections “A Light in the Attic” (1981), “Where the Sidewalk Ends” (1974) and the story “The Giving Tree” (1964).

Copyright 1996 Reprinted by permission.