All-ee All-ee In Come Free

All-ee All-ee Outs In Free

Ollie Ollie Oxen Free

Ourselves our secrets released from hairy shadows Mother trees
we came bewitched by stars and insect scratchings
We were ghosts made of black mist
We were silent as stones
We had no faces
loud hearts
We felt steely and cruel
like Greeks on a night raid
We came floating like fireflies
toward a language only half our own
Our fathers smelled like Scotch
our mothers like strange flowers
We came lightly padding on our dark animal souls
who knew vanishing was an art
and returning was easy

All-ee All-ee in come free
All-ee All-ee outs in free
Ollie Ollie oxen free