The Curious Girl

If you put a dime upon the tracks
It will derail a train
And your hair will be much softer
If you wash it in the rain

The bogeyman eats little girls
Who will not go to bed
When I was young, people told me all of this
And I believed all that they said

It took everyone, I must confess
A long time to convince
That if I’d kiss a frog upon its nose
He’d become a handsome prince

One night, I decided that these mysteries
Should be solved once and for all
So I grabbed my purse and packed a bag
And crept slowly down the hall

My next stop was kitchen
To find our sharpest knife
In case a bogeyman should force me
To fight him for my life

I snuck outside to the back porch
Feeling sufficiently insane
As I stood there in the midnight storm
And shampooed out in the rain

My hair did feel a little different
So I walked down to the street
But a fleeting shadow caught my eye
And a frightened chill froze my feet

Once the terror from me passed
I headed for the train station
That shadow was just nothing, right?
Just my wild imagination

I came to the intersection quickly
And again, my feet stopped dead
There was something in the shadows across the street
Telling me I should have gone to bed

I shivered and shook and looked again
But what ever was there had gone
I knew I should have just gone home
But I forced myself to press on

The train tracks lay before me
Like sleeping snakes made out of steel
I set down the dime and hurried along
Ignoring the guilt I began to feel

I knew this night was nothing but
A time of impending doom
And I knew there was a person
Staring at me from the gloom

I drew my knife from its pocket-sheath
As I neared the pond at Ashton Park
The trees around me were hungry giants
Waiting for me in the dark

I sat down on the pond’s muddy bank
And I heard a tiny splash
But was distracted by a person amongst the trees
When the lightning gave a flash

I heard a plop and saw before me
A grimy little creature
I gently took it in my hands
And inspected its every feature

Did I really want to kiss that thing?
The very thought had made me wince
But I changed my mind and became determined
To make this frog a prince

But I froze up once more, for in the distance I heard
A train pass slowly by
I heard metal screeching and tearing apart
And felt so guilty that I cried

Even as the tears rolled down my cheeks
I kissed the frog’s green face
And suddenly I found myself
In a young man’s warm embrace

“It’s true!” I cried, and stumbled back
To view my mystical friend
He smiled at me, and pulled me close
And I kissed him once again

“It’s time to go to bed now
You’re awake extremely late
Sneaking out is not a way
To find yourself a mate.”

With shock, I pulled away from the prince
Who once had been a frog
And what I saw was the dark person who’d followed me
But had hidden in the fog

“What happened to my friend?” I sobbed
“I want no bogeyman!”
“I’m sorry I’m no prince,” he said
“A bogey is all I am.”

“But I don’t want to hurt you
I just want to keep you safe
And I wanted to help you with all your questions
And the answers for which you have craved.”

The bogey cradled me in his arms
And carried me into the sky
He dropped me gently back into me bed
And I finally got some shut eye