The Topsy Turvey Men

They sally-sauntered

and jiggy-jauntered

over the cobbled stone

of the archy, bridgy,

oily, smidgy

pathway to its throne

*

Their spider arms

and spider legs

gangle-loped along

Their fingers stretching

voices retching

their curvy-swervy song:

*

“We live to find you

catch you, bind you

bring you to our king

We’ll nevermind you

as we grind you

child to a thing

*

A thing like us

you’ll never fuss

at meals or at bed

We’ll suck your brain

and slowly drain

the you from in your head.”

*

Below them in the moat

they crossed

all trunks and tusks and teeth

swam elephants

that kept the guard

from danger from beneath

*

They never did

come up for air

they seemed to have no need

as they serpentined

a hundred strong

each one a Ganymede

*

The topsy-turvy men

they lolled their way

each one a mindless knight

past the gate

to seal the fate

of dreamers in the night

*

For when they reached

their greedy king

and learned of its demand

they’d go back out

and have no doubt

they'd scour all the land

*

They’d zigzag here

and trundle there

to find that special child

caught in a dream

a frozen scream

lost in a slumber wild

*

Their evil eyes

would mesmerize

and hook you like a fish

They’d take you back

trussed in a sack

and serve you on a dish

*

To the king

with blood for eyes

a monster without sight

but then again

it had its men

to sate its appetite

*

They reached their king

that beastly thing

and each one bowed his head

a dangly angle

all a gangle

although all four were dead

*

They held their heads

from fingery threads

that oozed and stretched a hex

Like puppeteers

they grabbed their ears

and plunked them on their necks

*

So satisfied

it almost cried

it howled and screeched its glee

From its gaping maw

that festered raw

it bid them hunt for me

*

And just like you

I had no clue

for I was sleeping sound

far from dread

tucked in my bed

six feet above the ground

*

But where I lay

my soul to stay

it simply mattered not

The turvey men

would ne’er rest again

‘til after I was caught

*

As one they turned

their hunger burned

it drooled from their eyes

And in their stare

their only care:

tonight the child dies!

*

They picked up speed

desire and need

drove them ever faster

It must be found

for they were bound

to please their evil master

*

Bound by bound

they left the ground

with each massive stride

a thousand feet

two thousand more

they’d curvy-swervy glide

*

Over rock and mound

until they found

their special midnight child

Soon I would be

no longer me

but in a nightmare wild

*

In my dream I saw them come

I pleaded to my dad and mom

“There they are! Behind you! There!”

but they both seemed not to care

“That couldn’t be, no not at all,”

they said, “no one could be that tall.”

And so they never turned to see

the turvey men, all ten-foot-three

through the window point at me

and finger slice their necks with glee

Mom and dad turned back to eat

and I was frozen in my seat

I tried to run, to move, to scream

but just like things do in a dream

I found that I was stuck, could not

say a word, already caught

*

It was then all four

curved round the door

and reached for me to seal my grisly fate

There was no place to run, to hide,

but luck, it seems, was on my side;

my careless father dropped his dinner plate

*

And I awoke

It’s true, no joke,

safe and sound from harm I was delivered

For a noise I heard that night

saved me from that gruesome plight

I clutched my pillow tight and willy-shivered

*

I don’t know what became of them

the evil topsy-turvey men

who served an even worser monster king

But in their eyes I still can see

the gluttony and lust for me

and hear the curvy song they used to sing