Suzie Baby

Baby Suzie, Suzie Baby,

Don’t go near the Slasher House, kids

That’s where Suzie lives.

She has hair like gold,

Golden girl

She has dresses of lace like spiderwebs

Delicate girl

She has skin like a china doll

But she’s American as apple pie.

Suzie Baby,

She teases the boys with giggles,

blowing kisses and dropping worms on their heads

but they can never catch her if they try.

Don’t try, boys

They say she’ll kiss you then kill you with kindness

Leave you with your heart bleeding out in your hands.

--

Baby Suzie,

Laughing at her uncle Chuck the butcher

as he makes her favorite dinner, barbecue,

for the eighth night in a row

Eight nights for eight years

Suzie just turned eight.

But Suzie doesn't know

that the pulled pork is pulled pectoralis

fresh from the fine little boy next door.

Suzie doesn’t know until she knows

from the little brown shoes in the garage and the missing posters around the neighborhood

And then she’s gone too

Golden hair and china skin left to marinate in bags of A1 sauce and mystery spices until perfection.

--

Baby Suzie, Suzie Baby,

Don’t go near the Slasher House, kids

That’s where Suzie died, twenty two years ago.

She has hair like gold,

Golden girl

She has dresses of lace like spiderwebs

Delicate girl

She has skin like a china doll

But she’s American as apple pie.

She teases boys and girls with giggles,

little footsteps pattering just around the corner

but they can never catch her if they try.

Don’t try, boys and girls

They say she’ll kiss you then kill you with kindness

Leave you with your heart bleeding out in your hands

Dead, like her.