Little Jack Horner

Little Jack Horner

sat in a corner

eating a Christmas pie,

when in the alley appeared

a woman and a man with a beard.

Neither saw Jack wave hi.

Or maybe they did

(The rich ignored street kids,

long as they ne'er drew nigh.)

The woman could barely stand.

The cider in her hand

was nearly drunken dry.

She cried "Sir, no!

Please, leave me go!"

Jack kept a close eye.

With hands like a spider

the man reached inside her

skirt and felt her thigh.

The woman jerked and fell

with a high-pitched yell.

Cracked her head on the ice.

Jack started to get up

though he was just a pup,

and the man was a full-head high.

The man noticed not

because Jack was so squat,

or maybe cuz Jack was so sly.

Instead, the man looked down

at the woman on the ground

saying, “It’s better when you lie.”

He crawled over her dress

and tried to make it less

by undoing her waist-belt tie.

So Jack grabbed the blade

he used to eat what the baker made

and plunged it into the man’s eye.

When the woman came to

she groaned, "Who are you?"

Jack said, "I didn’t want you to die."

Then she noticed the man, dead,

and shook her head

crying, "God above, oh my!

Please, boy, tell no one

Or we shall be undone,

Swear it on the Lord high!"

"I swear it," said Jack.

Then, he went right back

To eating his Christmas pie.

"Where had that blade gone?"

he wondered anon.

"Hope I find it by and by."

The woman knelt down,

touched his crown,

and said, “Boy, are you alright?”

The confused little Jack.

He searched his mind front to back

for an answer he could supply.

He never found one,

which made him feel dumb,

and for no good reason why,

he gripped his pie tin,

stuck his thumb in,

plucked out a plum, and said, "Wanna try?"

The woman frowned at the proffering,

so Jack examined what he was offering:

the bloody plum reminded him of an eye.

He remembered, began to understand

what he’d done to a bearded man

and said, “I’m not a good boy, am I?”

The woman gave his hand a pat,

said, “Don’t you worry about that.

You're an angel in my eyes.”

Jack said, "That’s not good enough, is it?

If I want Santa to visit?

Oh well, next year, I’ll try."