Ticklish Tom by Shel Silverstein

Did you hear 'bout Ticklish Tom?
He got tickled by his mom.
Wiggled and giggled and fell on the floor,
Laughed and rolled right out the door.
All the way to school and then
He got tickled by his friends.
Laughed till he fell off his stool,
Laughed and rolled right out of school
Down the stairs and finally stopped
Till he got tickled by a cop.
And all the more that he kept gigglin',
All the more folks kept ticklin'.
He shrieked and screamed and rolled around,
Laughed his way right out of town.
Through the country down the road,
He got tickled by a toad.
Past the mountains across the plain,
Tickled by the falling rain,
Tickled by the soft brown grass,
Tickled by the clouds that passed.
Giggling, rolling on his back
He rolled on the railroad track.
Rumble, rumble, whistle, roar--
Tom ain't ticklish any more.





I think that this poem is very cool because it takes us back to the old days, when our parents tickled us ALL the time. Although most of us probably didn't get tickled as much as the poor kid in this poem, i think we all got tickled.  And that is something that just about every kid can share.  I remember this one time when my dad tickled me so hard I almost kicked him in the face...good times.  Thinking about being tickled makes me automatically flinch whenever someone tries to give me a high five, or when they try to shake my hand, I was so tickle-traumatized as a child that now, I flinch at just about everything.