THE LITTLE CREATURE

Twinkum, twankum, twirlum and twitch

My great grandam — She was a Witch.

Mouse in wainscot, Saint in niche —

My great grandam — She was a Witch;

Deadly nightshade flowers in a ditch —

My great grandam — She was a Witch;

Long though the shroud it grows stitch by stitch —

My great grandam — She was a Witch;

Wean your weakling before you breech —

My great grandam — She was a Witch;

The fattest pig's but a double flitch —

My great grandam — She was a Witch;

Nightjars rattle, owls scritch —

My great grandam — She was a Witch.

Pretty and small,

A mere nothing at all,

Pinned up sharp in the ghost of a shawl,

She'd straddle her down to the kirkyard wall,

And mutter and whisper and call; and call —

And — call.

Red blood out and black blood in,

My Nannie says I'm a child of sin —

How did I choose me my witchcraft kin!

Know I as soon as dark's dreams begin

Snared is my heart in a nightmare's gin;

Never from terror I out may win;

So dawn and dusk I pine, peak, thin,

Scarcely beknowing t'other from which —

My great grandam — She was a Witch.