Blame the Goat

Blame


I wrote such a beautiful book for you
'Bout rainbows and sunshine
And dreams that come true.
But the goat went and ate it
(You knew that he would),
So I wrote you another one
Fast as I could.
Of course it could never be
Nearly as great
As that beautiful book
That silly goat ate.
So if you don't like
This new book I just wrote-
Blame the goat.


~From A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein

For many years now, my friend Tamie and I have used this poem as an alibi to excuse the quality of our writing -- to say that it would've been this amazing and marvelous thing if it just hadn't been for that darn goat!  

I find myself thinking of Shel's (he and I are on a first-name basis, did you know?) words whenever I lose an e-mail or a document, especially one that I've particularly toiled over and/or one that was fairly emotionally wrenching to get down in the first place.

Amy, this is the long way of telling you that I wrote such a beautiful facebookmessage for you but that goat went and ate (you knew that he would) so I'm off to try again -- I'd made it all the way up to 1992, too!