The playground is a happy place
where little children play
until the Ice Cream Man comes around
at the closing of the day.

Now you’d think that ice cream in a truck
would fill e’re’ child’s heart with joy.
Nay, it strikes fear into the very souls
of each playground girl and boy.

A black cold heart has the Ice Cream Man,
for he has not come to play,
nor to sell those tykes an ice cream bar
but to steal one of them away.

Dark, slickened hair, a pockmarked face
and drenched in summer sweat,
he’ll steal a bairn in a flash of time
for a lifetime of regret.

A siren song, sings the ice cream bell
come hither does it sing.
answer it not if ye wish to live
for death is what it brings.

Play then, ye children, swing and slide
and laugh away the day
but hearken to the ice cream man
and run, run quick away.