words and music: Tom Baxter

 Late at night, while the sexton slept
One dead finger from the graveyard crept,
Crept to his kitchen, had a few drinks
And fell asleep among the sausage links.

Chorus:  Ohhh, oh.  Ohhh, oh.
     Up from the graveyard watch it* go
     Creepin its* way into the night
     One* dead finger* in the pale moonlight.

Late one night, little fingers two
Hopped a ride upon the sexton's shoe
Wriggled up his body inside his clothes
Popped out his collar and tweaked his nose.

Late one night, little fingers three
Strolled to the sexton's library
Found a book unread for ages
And the fingers went a-walking through its yellowed pages.

Late one night little fingers four
Climbed way up into the sexton's drawer
Tied his underwear into knots
And mismatched all his favorite formal socks.

Late one night around the midnight hour
Five dead fingers climbed the old clock tower
And when at twelve the carillon tolled
The sexton heard them playing heart and soul.

Late one night, when he was tucked in bed
Six fingers climbed onto the sexton's head
And kept him awake with their ghoulish prances
Six dead fingers doing Morris dances.

Late one night in the cold and damp
Seven fingers climbed up to the sexton's lamp
And 'round and 'round each other they crawled
And cast scary shadow pictures on the wall.

Late one night, when he was by himself
The sexton saw them sitting on his shelf
A horrible sight, which made him shudder
Eight bored fingers just a-twiddling each other.

Late one night little fingers nine
Marched onto the table when the sexton dined
Around the dinner plate marched that group
Then they went skinny dipping in his noodle soup.

Late one night, in the moonlight cold
Ten dead fingers from the graveyard rolled
But nobody's seen them after that
Not since the sexton got himself a cat.


copyright 1997 Thomas Baxter


* on successive verses, substitute them/their/number of fingers/plurals.