“Baby Doll… Baby Doll”

It was a poor Black ghetto and nothing there worked right.

Most of the street lights were broken so it was extra dark at night.

The only light that shined regularly was from police car beams.

The only sound normally heard were from their sirens’ screams.

All the children young and old played jump rope until they’d fall!

Their current favorite nursery rhyme and jump rope song was “Baby Doll… Baby Doll…”!

It was an awful tune and song children shouldn’t even sing!

The only thing worse than the song was the accursed thing.

“Baby Doll… Baby Doll… You can’t catch me I won’t fall!”

“I can jump and I can skip but you won’t catch me I won’t trip.”

“Baby Doll… Baby Doll… Catch me at midnight if you try!”

“If you can catch me at that time then you will kill me and I’ll die!”

On the housing project playground they all loved to sing the song!

Each child taking a turn at jumping rope as they sang along.

None of them believed the song and thought it was a game.

Until one deadly night they learned the truth and never were the same.

An old woman tried to warn them not to keep playing and singing the song…

All they did was swear at her so she cursed them as they kept doing it by also singing along!

One little girl stopped playing and said she had to go pee pee…

Then she turned up missing that was the last of her they’d see!

They didn’t immediately associate the missing girl to the rhythm.

Like I said it was the ghetto with lil’ girls missing all the time!

“Baby Doll… Baby Doll… You can’t catch me I won’t fall!”

“I can jump and I can skip but you won’t catch me I won’t trip.”

“Baby Doll… Baby Doll… Catch me at midnight if you try!”

“If you can catch me at that time then you will kill me and I’ll die!”

They asked where the little girl was when she was missing the next day.

She was one of the best jump rope jumpers when they’d double Dutch with two ropes to play.

Another child got thirsty so it went to get a drink.

That same child went missing before investigators could think.

Each night the homeless lit trash cans just to stay warm by the fires.

There was the baby doll that had inspired the song hanging above from the electricity wires.

No one knew how it got up there and nobody really cared.

They just knew it looked so bad that it left them feeling scared!

It’s head was mostly bald with just a patch of hair or two.

It’s dress was badly torn and ripped from all it had been through.

It was once a beloved toy they’d played with every day.

Until they’d all got tired of it and just threw it away.

Another thing the children used to do for fun as they passed it too.

Was to point at each other and say: “That baby doll IS YOU!”…

By the end of just one month it was the saddest thing.

There were at least 50 children who’d played jump rope that were now missing!

One has heard the ice cream truck and went to get ice cream.

The child never made it back and someone said they’d heard it scream.

One ran around the corner just to get some BBQ.

Innocently not knowing that was the last thing it would do.

Residents got scared and made their children stop the game.

The ghetto project playground was empty and no longer the same.

They searched and searched for days on end never giving up hope.

Until they found each missing child hanging dead from a jump rope.

For nights on end all that could be heard was each mother cry and wail.

As they found their dead child and had to recite the rhyme and tale!

“Baby Doll… Baby Doll… You can’t catch me I won’t fall!”

“I can jump and I can skip but you won’t catch me I won’t trip.”

“Baby Doll… Baby Doll… Catch me at midnight if you try!”

“If you can catch me at that time then you will kill me and I’ll die!”