Russ Towne's A Grateful Man

Attached is the illustration for the cover art for my song “Clyde and I”. I should be able to post the song to you within a week, and with a slight revision it might be the cover art for a possible children’s book that I’m considering.

I thought of the silliest mental image I could come up within about 30 seconds and then wrote the poem/story/song based on it (which took decidedly longer than 30 seconds to write):

“A green giraffe named Clyde who likes to eat bananas while standing on his head in the rain…”

Clyde and I
I went to say “hi” to new neighbors next door
And saw something I’d never seen before
When I say what I saw please don’t laugh
Because what I saw was a green giraffe!
He was standing on his head out in the rain
And the poor wet guy seemed in a lot of pain
His body swayed way up high
And his feet were stuck straight up in the sky!
I just stood there not knowing what to do
As he ate a banana that was bright blue!
I’ve seen yellow bananas, and green ones too,
Even brown and black ones, but never blue!
When I offered my umbrella
To that very soaked fella
He said, “Hi, my name is Clyde.”
Then looked at me with sad, sad, eyes
And with a sigh he said, “Silly me.
“I tried to untie a knot in a tree.
“Now what a pain in the neck I’ve got.
“When I bend it wrong it hurts a LOT.
“So I’m standing on my head to work out the kinks
“He explained between rain-drop blinks
“And I’m eating this banana to keep up my strength
“It takes a lot of muscles for a neck this length”
Then he thought for a while
And on his face grew a great big smile
“Would you please use my neck for a slide?
You’ll help my sore neck muscles if you take a ride
And I’ll bet that if you do
It will be a lot of fun for you.”
I knew right then we’d become good friends!
The End

–Russ Towne