Tuesday, May 8, 2012

RIP Maurice Sendak

From memory:

The night Max wore his wolf suit,
and made mischief of one kind,
and another,
his mother called him "wild thing" and Max said "I'll eat you up,"
so he was sent to bed without eating anything.

That very night in Max's room a forest grew
and grew
and grew, until the walls became the wild world all around
and an ocean tumbled by with a private boat for Max
and he sailed off through night and day,
and in and out of weeks,
and almost over a year to where the wild things are.

The wild things roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and showed their terrible claws
until Max said, "be still!" and tamed them with the magic trick of staring into all their yellow eyes without blinking once,
and they were frightened and called him the most wild thing of all
and made him king of all the wild things.
"And now," cried Max, "Let the wild rumpus start!"

"Now stop," said Max, and he sent the wild things off to bed without their supper.

Max the king of all wild things was lonely, and wanted to be where somebody loved him best of all.
From all the way across the world Max smelled good things to eat, so he stepped into his private boat,
and the wild things said, "Oh please don't go, we'll eat you up, we love you so!" but Max said no.
He sailed off almost over a year, and in and out of weeks, and into the night of his very own room,
where he found his supper waiting for him.

And it was still hot.

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