Hungry Mungry
Hungry Mungry sat at supper, took his knife and spoon and fork, Ate a bowl of mushroom soup, ate a slice of roasted pork,
Ate a dozen stewed tomatoes, twenty-seven deviled eggs, Fifteen shrimps, nine baked potatoes, thirty-two fried chicken legs,
A shank of lamb; a boiled ham, two bowls of grits, some black-eye
peas,
Four chocolate shakes, eight angel cakes, nine custard pies with Muenster cheese,
Ten pots of tea, and after he Had eaten all that he was able,
He poured some broth on the tablecloth and ate the kitchen table.
His parents said, “Oh Hungry Mungry, stop these silly jokes.”
Mungry opened up his mouth, and “Gulp,” he ate his folks.
And then he went and ate his house, all the bricks and wood,
And then he ate up all the people in the neighborhood.
Up came twenty angry policemen shouting, “Stop and cease.”
Mungry opened up his mouth and “Gulp,” he ate the police.
Soldiers came with tanks and guns. Said Mungry, “They cant harm me.”
He just smiled and licked his lips and ate the U.S. Army.
Put his head back, gulped the planes, and gobbled up the
bomb.
He ate his town and ate the city – ate and ate and ate —
And then he said, “I think I’ll eat the whole United States.”
And so he ate Chicago first and munched the Water Tower,
And then he chewed on Pittsburgh but he found it rather sour.
He ate New York and Tennessee, and all of Boston town,
Then drank the Mississippi River just to wash it down.
And when he’d eaten every state, each puppy, boy and girl
He wiped his mouth upon his sleeve and went to eat the world.
He ate the Egypt pyramids and every church in Rome.
And all the grass in Africa and all the ice in Nome.
He ate each hill in green Brazil and then to make things worse
He decided for dessert he’d eat the universe.
He started with the moon and stars and soon as he was done
He gulped the clouds, he sipped the wind and gobbled up the sun.
Then sitting there in the cold dark air, He started to nibble his feet,
Then his legs, then his hips, then his neck, then his lips, till he sat there just gnashin’ his teeth
‘Cause nothin’ was nothin’ was Nothin’ was nothin’ was Nothin’ was left to eat.
From: “Where the Sidewalk Ends”
By Shel Silverstein
Hungry Mungry was my favorite poem in the book Where the Sidewalk Ends. Every time I opened the book I would read Hungry Mungry. It reminds me of learning to read. This was one of the first books I loved to read.
