To the waitress, with the blond highlights in her bangs

From a lonely romantic

I’m sorry I keep looking at you.
Better, I’m sorry you're uncomfortable.
It’s just difficult not to stare.


You are beautiful, and I don’t mean to be objectifying.
It’s like when you’re a child and you see a Rembrandt
before you knew who he was. It’s beautiful without knowing

Technique.

I’m not a painter, so I really can’t explain past that.

...It’s like reading a Shel Silverstein poem for the first time. Maybe it’s the “Missing Piece.”
You see the pretty pictures, you get the pretty plot (“Having is nice, but the living a quest.”)
But eventually you learn. 

You learn Mr. Silverstein abandoned his family 

for work. Even though his lover died, and his 

children were sent to their aunt. And his daughter 

died from a brain aneurysm.

You learn that missing pieces 

Made up his life, pieces for which he either wasn’t looking 

Or couldn’t find. You learn the lesson ("Having is nice, but living is a quest") 

is as appalling as it is heart-wrenching.
                                         

Essentially you learn this poem is three dimensional, 

As I am sure you are. 

I tell you this because, in this light, from this perspective, 

You are beautiful. And I imagine that in 

other perspectives of you, I will meet something 

funny and dark and dreamy and foolish 

and loving and angry and beautiful and bleak

and mad and petty and cruel and pure

but still as potent a missing piece as I can seek.

 
Would you like a drink?

Thanks to TheHickstead for the movie.

Shel Silverstein

The easiest thing to say is that he was complicated. Still easier is that he was simple.

Early on, Shel wrote mostly for Playboy. His first paychecks for cartooning were from Mr. Hefner, and they motivated him to go full time. 


He ignored his children.  Their mother (not his wife) died of cancer, and they went to live with an aunt and uncle.  His daughter died some 6 years later from a brain aneurysm.  

He didn't want to do children's books at first. They dragged him into it because the pay was real, but listen to songs like The Unicorn.  Really Shel, you can't see it?

He served in the Korean War, and he loved women; he lived as a recluse, refused interviews and decried schooling.  He was opinionated, stubborn and vulgar.

But he was a man who knew what he wanted and how to say it plainly.  Blessed art thou, Shel. 

Can you babysit Friday? 


Additional Reading: 
On Vibrators: http://www.pinterest.com/petemayhem/uncle-shelby-s-abz-book/ 
On Bad Influence: http://songmeanings.com/songs/view/3530822107858580683/
On Women's Liberation: http://crazcowboy.tripod.com/Silverstein/lady1999.htm