THE ZOMBIE BALL

If you'd like to see a sight
To set your skin acrawl,
Come with me on Hallow's Night
To see the Zombie Ball!

Round the smarmy toadstool bed
On Amanita Lane
Merry dance the mouldy dead
Who've come to life again.

First there wobbles Squashed Hedgehog
Who fell beneath a car.
Then leaps lively Half-a-Frog
(How tasty frog-legs are!)

Next comes Rotten Rex the Rat
Corrupted to the bone
And in his trail of maggots fat
Comes Stinky Bird, alone.

Bringing up the putrid rear
With guts upon his feet
Pond'rous twirls, amid loud jeers
The shrew who lived to eat.

Zombies flock from far and near
To dance beneath the moon
You see, it's only once a year
They're let out of the tomb.

As they celebrate the night
Carousing all the while
There stirs in them an appetite
For delicacies vile.

In the Rat's putrescent heart
A seed of passion grows.
And as a man might kiss his tart
He bites off Mousie's nose.

Hedgehog, hoping to distend
His belly, crushed and flat
Gobbles down the snakey end
Which was attached to Rat.

Frog, meanwhile, in search of gams
To stitch to his behind
Gnaws away at Hedgehog's hams
Which he thinks quite a find.

Stinky Bird, who once loved trees
Like juniper and pine
Now lingers in their fragrant breeze
To peck at Froggie's spine.

Shrew, he craves some rotten eggs
And will not be denied
He shoves his head 'tween Birdie's legs
To get at what's inside.

They eat until their bellies pop
And then they eat some more,
Until, stuffed full at last, they flop
Upon the forest floor.

In the pumpkins' orange glow
The ground begins to shake
And something rises from below
With mud and graveworms caked.

First a head, and then a hand
Emerges from the deep
And soon enough, a figure stands
And croaks "It's time to sleep."

One by one, she scoops them up
As quiet as the dead
And as the living world wakes up
She takes them home to bed.