Three Little Witches 

Three little witches
Gathered round his eyes
One was a surgeon
The other two were spies.

  One held a knife
Another held his chin
One held a rattle
To let the charm begin.

  They waited and they watched
In a ring around his head
Almost not uncertain
That he would wind up dead.

  The laughter in the hotel
Erupted from the earth
And all along the nightmare
The witches made a berth.

  Finally the morning
Crept back into the room
And all the little witches
Fled into the tomb.

  The laughter had receded
Back into the well
Of poisoned opportunity
And other minor hells.
 
  He went down to the ocean
And set his gaze beyond
The line of the horizon
And the ambush of the dawn.

He went into the city
Tracing footsteps lost 
He walked into a theater
Avoiding winter's frost. 

The man who held the guitar
Could see his troubled mind
And swept away the cobwebs
The witches left behind.

He went into the balcony
And met a gypsy queen
Yet when he reached the lobby
He met her back again.

Prudence made a deal
At midnight with the moon
A gypsy girl named Sugaree
Was leaving much too soon.

One man read the paper
Another read a book
But the little dancing princess
Killed him with a look.