Long ago I met a boy 

This boy had too many fingers 

Twelve to be exact 

We shall call him “the Twelve Fingered Boy,” or Twelve for short 

 

Twelve was different, dangerous, one might say 

He acted belligerent when things swayed from his taste 

Those around him tried to appease him, but Twelve had mace 

He enjoys taunting puppies and threatening them with the mace 

Nothing Twelve did ever pleased him though 

 

Twelve was running low on cash 

He need money for torturing 

He sent a slave to fetch a lottery ticket 

It must have been his lucky day, for he won the lottery 

But even he realized it was too much money 

He wrote a riddle for his slaves to solve 

 

If the slaves could figure the riddle  

He would set them free 

And give them all of his money 

 

The first clue was “the hate list” 

The list was a list of all those who were hated 

 

The next clue was “stolen” 

It blamed all of those hated people for everything bad 

Like cancer, and pebbles in shoes 

 

After this the hated people were mad and frustrated 

They began slandering Twelve 

But to no avail 

 

The next clue was called, “There will be lies” 

Twelve created it to make the hated look like liars 

Twelves’ slaves went along with him since that was part of their job requirements 

 

The next clue was “the ask and the answer” 

The slaves had never asked a question before 

It was all foreign to them 

They assumed it meant to kill the hated people 

 

The slaves killed those hated people 

And buried them in holes 

 

The Ask and the Answer was the last clue 

No slave solved the riddle 

No slave escaped 

It was all for play 

It was all a game for the terrible twelve 

 

Now the slaves were sinners  

They had the blood of their brethren on their hands 

They were sinners now and nothing could be done about it 

They shrugged their shoulders and went back to work 

 

Twelve looked out his bathroom window while piddling one day 

He saw a bird on an old hickory tree 

The bird said, “Poo-tee-weet”