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Dr. Seuss, In Memoriam


Author Kevin Shortsleeve
Air Date 9/24/2003

Dr. Seuss, In Memoriam Transcript

Dear Dr. Seuss, wherever you are, Whether you’re drifting off Zither or floating off Zarr, I just want you to know I miss you so much. Yes ever so muchly. Oh muchly, so much.

I asked several Sneeches I happened to meet,
If they’d seen where you wandered in your Dr. Seuss feet.
They said they knew not and they thought no one knew,
Not Thidwick, not the Wocket, not even the Whos.
Bartholomew Cubbins just could not be sure.
Even Horton hadn’t heard not a who where you were.
The East Zax suggested perhaps you went West.
The West Zax thought rather East looking was best.
So I jumped in my jumble-bob and flew off to France
To ask the wise Lorax ‘neath the Pants-Eating-Plants.
He said he was sorry, but he had not a clue.
“Just perhaps” he continued, “That old Grinch had got you
And locked you up tight in a tower in Flarv ”
The Grinch said he’d have liked to but had not thus far.

So on my search went, through the Sea of Katmandu,
Through the Winds of West Endor, to the woods of Timbuktu.
I asked every creature which ever there was,
From the Collapsible Frink to the Zizzer Zazzer Zuzz.
But no one had seen you, nor heard any word
Neither mammals, nor wammal-camels, nor insects or birds.

Then I felt all alone, in a sad empty place,
Like a rusty tin coat-hanger left hanging in space.
So I walked for a while in the leftover breeze
And I wondered who’d teach Irish ducks Jivanese?
Who’ll eat the Green Eggs at Sam I Am’s feast?
And whoever will it be who must carve the roast beast?

Then just when I thought that I’d heard my last line,
When I was sure that I’d learned my last tongue-twister rhyme,
I heard a small sound like the coo of a Who.
It was Cindy-Lou-Who, who was no longer two.
She was nearly six now as she climbed on my knee,
And proudly pronounced she’d just learned how to read.
She laughed as she read me your story out loud,
And when finally she finished, she beamed happy and proud.

Is that you Dr. Seuss? Did I find you at last?
Are you living in smiles and in young reader’s laughs?
Is that you in my memory? Will you stay for a while?
Stay for my grandchildren and great-grandchildren’s smile?

Dear Dr. Seuss, wherever you are, Whether you’re drifting off Zither or floating off Zarr, I just want you to know I miss you so much. Yes ever so muchly. Oh muchly, so much.

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