Sometimes poems don’t begin at a desk. They begin when you’re half asleep.
One night, just as I was drifting off, a ridiculous thought popped into my head: a dancing dinosaur in purple underwear. I have no idea where it came from. I wasn’t thinking about dinosaurs. I wasn’t thinking about underwear. But there it was.
And it made me laugh.
So instead of rolling over and going to sleep, I did what poets sometimes have to do. I grabbed my phone in the dark and typed a quick note so I wouldn’t forget it in the morning.
Then… I forgot about it anyway.
Well, not completely. The idea sat in my “poem ideas” folder for months. Every once in a while I’d scroll past it and think, “Hmm. A dancing dinosaur in purple underwear. That’s funny.” But I didn’t know what kind of poem it wanted to be.
About six months later, I looked at it again and started playing around with questions. Have you ever been here? Have you ever been there? And most importantly, have you seen a dancing dinosaur in purple underwear?
Once I found that rhythm of questions, the poem practically wrote itself.
This is one of those silly poems that exists for one very important reason: because sometimes an unexpected, ridiculous idea is enough to make you smile. And sometimes that’s all a poem needs to do.
Have You Ever Been to England?
Have you ever been to England?
Have you ever been to France?
Have you seen a dancing dinosaur
in purple underpants?
Have you visited St. Louis?
Have you visited St. Clair?
Did you see a dancing dinosaur
in purple underwear?
Have you traveled through the jungles?
Have you been to beach resorts?
Have you found a dancing dinosaur
in purple undershorts?
Have you trekked across the deserts?
Have you trudged across the snows?
Were there any dancing dinosaurs
in purple underclothes?
I suppose you haven’t seen one yet
but if you ever do,
then please tell me where you spotted it
so I can see one too.
— Kenn Nesbitt
