The Boogie Man
There’s a weathered old house on Sycamore lane
Where family’s move in but never remain.
They always move away
It’s gotten worse over the years
People come with hope, but leave with fears
New families never stay
The house was old, it had become decayed
Each night it rocked, each night it swayed
Winds shook its hillside placement.
It’s home to roaches and spiders
Wormies, squirmies, and shadow hiders
And the Boogie Man in the basement
In that basement made of wood and stone
Is the only world he has ever known
Boogie has been there all of his days
Being spooky has been his life’s work
Creeping through darkness to sneak and lurk
Scaring folks with his Boogie ways
He wants something different, something more
He has never left the basement before
Boogiemen don’t leave, it’s not what they do
Being curious, he has often spied
From the back door to the world outside
He wants to know something new
Through greasy webs as thick as hairs
He’d walk to the top of the backdoor stairs
As they’d shake, wobble and creek
The door was shut tight, but when done just right
He’d look through the key hole that lets in the light
To give the world a peek
One day, on a late rainy morning
The dog catcher drove by without warning
Boogie was watching through the keyhole crack
The van filled with dogs, filled up full
Hit a large, roadside hole
And dumped a puppy out the back
Boogie wasn’t perfect and he had his flaws
But he had a purpose and he had a cause
He knew what needed to be done
He went outside for the very first time
Stepping out from the shadows and grime
Into the world, out in the sun
He scooped the puppy up from the lawn
Then chased the truck but the truck was gone
It drove away leaving them behind
Standing there in the rain and the fog
Boogie would remain there with the dog
A puppy that needed a home to find
He had to help, though it wasn’t his plan
But a boogie man is still a man
And good men do what’s right
He’s scared every person he’d ever seen
Gooey and creepy and he looks quite mean
People run from him upon first sight
He went looking anyway.
Not long after he started looking
He smelled the smell of BBQ cooking
Coming from a yard along town’s edge
With cooking smells throughout the air
Boogie knew a family was there
So, he walked right in through the hedge
The sight of Boogie was just so grim
The dad jumped up to the oak tree limb
He dangled there over the lunch
The sister sprayed mustard, she was so afraid
Brother cried, covered in mustard sprayed
Mom passed out in the punch.
Boogie lurched into town as the sun set
Searching for someone that wanted a pet
People were plenty, the streets were teeming
A parade in town that he came upon
Quickly turned into a marathon
As they all ran away screaming
In the woods by the abandoned shack
They came across a Lumberjack
A beast of a man, whiskers sharp as tacks
Lumberjacks, they love dogs
Almost as much as chopping logs
And carrying around an axe
He’d surely be up for such a task
He was just the type of person to ask
But when he saw Boogie, his axe dropped
He soiled his drawers with lunch remains
Blood boiled so fast through his veins
That the mosquito on his shoulder popped
They kept on searching, so along they went
Until they came to a circus tent
Boogie walked right inside
The trapeze swinger, the bear on a bike
Large cats, acrobats and juggling clowns alike
They all ran out the back terrified
As he continued to look, the next route he took
Brought him to a policeman arresting a crook
A ferocious crook the size of an ape
The cop dove in a dumpster, as boogie came near
The crook couldn’t move, he was frozen with fear
He didn’t even escape
Boogie carried on all the same
Until he came to a football game
Where players were fearless in uniform
When the players saw boogie approach
They ran into each other, then over the coach
Then ran into the woods in a cowardly storm
Cheerleaders screamed, then followed as well
They ran into the woods yelling a yell
That rang through the trees like a fire alarm
Boogie followed and Boogie chased
But he got lost and was soon misplaced
Until he stumbled upon a farm
As the air chilled and the wind hissed
Boogie approached the farm through the mist
His eyes glaring red like two fresh cherries
Boogie came into view, the farmer turned blue
The goosebumps on his arms grew and grew
Until they looked like blueberries
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As the farmer ran off, screaming in a hurry
For the first time, Boogie began to worry
His doubts began to arrive
Boogie could keep the puppy, he had love to show
But basements are no place for puppies to grow
For a puppy, it is no place to thrive
On his way home, while holding the pup
On the street corner, about to give up
Someone bumped into Boogie’s side.
Standing there, a boy stood smiling
His teeth were as white as kitchen tiling
He didn’t scream, he didn’t hide
He stumbled there without even knowing
He was blind and couldn’t see where he was going
It was not where he meant to be
Boogie’s looks…none are scarier than his
But that’s just how looks and not how he is
Sometimes being blind is the only way to see
Unaware he ran into a Boogie Man
The boy said, “I can’t see, perhaps you can
Can you help me find where I live?”
The puppy barked and let out a yelp
He saw the boy and wanted to help
He had his puppy sight to give.
Boogie gave the boy the leash to hold
The puppy guided, the puppy pulled
Off they strolled along their way
The boy no longer had to blindly roam
He had a dog to walk him home
A home where the dog would stay
The following day the new family upstairs
Came down to see the basement of theirs
While Boogie stood in shadowy spaces
They came to the furnace, then they stopped
Out from the shadows the Boogie man popped
Only to see two familiar faces
Smiling there from the hallway end
Stood the blind boy and his puppy friend
In that home on Sycamore Lane
In Boogie’s worn house, as it came to be
They would be living, just the same as he
And that is where they would all remain.