I fed Vixo on every fear and fret and phobia
Until it nor I could stand the strain no longer
Sucked a chicken bone, tossed it in the corner
Raising up like Lazarus, up, up from its cot
And making for the door, now . . .
Infant-prodigy creates a phantom-friend, yeah
Sticking sack and ol' Jack-Jack into its itchin-ten
Oh! Don't you linger!
Oh! Don't you linger, now
My monster-piece, my perfect murder-machine
Don't you linger, for I can feel my youth slipping out of me
Yeah, I can feel my youth slip out of me
Call it, call it Vixo, call it Vee
I call it, and it comes to me
Call it Vixo, call it me
March headlong into the heart of fear
I will follow thee
What kept you, what, what kept you?
You get trouble, something go wrong?
Vixo grinning, climbs up into my lil boy arms
What you get?
Tell me, what you gone and brung me from the hollow?
Yeah! We're laughing . . . but our laughter is shallow
Ain't it funny, my childhood name is Sorrow
Vixo sighs, and lays its head upon my pillow
Call it, call it Vixo, call it Vee
Call it, and it comes to me
Vee, ah, Hex, oh oh, come crawl with me
Into the dark heart of despair
I will not forsake thee
Listen . . . instruction!
Ditch it, pitch it, now hitch it up along the ridge
You laughing beneath the sheriff's wheels
That go screaming across Hooper Bridge
Skirt the outskirts, up my back stair
Your sack all undone
Don't touch nothing!
Water running in the tub
Get there and scrub every one
When you struck you struck!
You struck a thousand crickets dumb
Hooper-Hollow iced over then, all hush, hush
In the cool midday sun
Hush! I say hush! Hu-u-u-ush!
Sitting on the roof, laugh at myself
As they rope off the woods
Watching all the good-people
Go beating the bush