Shel Silverstein

My Mind Keeps Movin’

transformation lyric poem playful

Walk into a restaurant with chicken on my mind Look at the menu I want roastbeaf and wine A waitress comes up I order baked beans and bread Oh when she brings it I want ham'n eggs instead Because my mind keeps a movin' bouncin' and a groovin' A flippin' floppin' every whichaway From minute to minute if my mind ain't really in it Never know just what I'm do or say Sometimes I wake up happy sometimes I wake up mean Sometimes I wake up missin' somethin' I ain't seen Might wake up wasted and I might wake up dead Might wake up and look around and jump back into bed Because my mind keeps a movin'... [ guitar ] Sittin' home at midnight thinkin' bout Marie go to the phone I dial Carol Lee I say come by babe just as fast as you can And when she gets there I'm thinkin' bout Ann Because my mind keeps a movin'... Fly off to Paris just to get away from home Get off in London and I grab a boat for Rome Got to St Louis be in St Paul or else take a trip and go no place at all Because my mind keeps a movin'... I go to a psychiatrist to straighten my head Then I decide I need a chiropractor instead Put salt in my coffee and ketchup in my tea only dig a chick that don't dig me Because my mind keeps a movin'... Sometimes I don't shave and I look kinda weird So shave off my hair and I grow a beard Shave off my beard dye my eyebrows green Play myself a song upon a tambourine Because my mind keeps a movin'...

My Mind Keeps Movin’ - meaning Summary

Restless, Changeable Mind

Silverstein’s playful poem depicts a speaker whose desires, moods, and plans constantly shift without warning. Through a series of comic vignettes—changing food orders, sudden travel whims, romantic fanouts, and self-altering grooming—the narrator admits to persistent restlessness and impulsivity. The tone is light and self-aware, presenting mental wandering as a habitual, almost musical condition that shapes everyday choices and identity more than any firm intention or plan.

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