When I was in elementary school, our music teacher taught us a song that had such a profound effect on my imagination (and nightmares) that my mom, tired of me sleeping outside her bedroom door, had to go to the teacher and ask her to talk to me about it. The song was based on James Whitcomb Riley’s poem Little Orphant Annie. It’s an amazing poem and creepy. Here’s an excerpt:

“An’ one time a little girl ‘ud allus laugh an’ grin,
An’ make fun of ever’ one, an’ all her blood-an’-kin;
An’ wunst, when they was “company,” an’ ole folks wuz there,
She mocked ‘em an’ shocked ‘em, an’ said she didn’t care!
An’ thist as she kicked her heels, an’ turn’t to run an’ hide,
They wuz two great big Black Things a-standin’ by her side,
An’ they snatched her through the ceilin’ ‘fore she knowed what she’s about!
An’ the Gobble-uns ‘ll git you
Ef you
Don’t
Watch
Out!”

Christ. I’m not going to get any sleep tonight.

Poetry Archive - Little Orphant Annie

(note: the artist above is Brian Froud, another author of my childhood nightmares and conceptual artist for Labyrinth and the Dark Crystal)