In the shadows, in the bushes, in the space between the leaves A spider in a thicket crawled up on my knee I put my gloves on, put my hat on, and I ran from the trees But that little black spider came a crawling after me From the shadows in the bushes, in the space between the leaves A little black spider came a crawling home with me It crawled across my window as I lay me down to sleep In the morning on my pillow it waited patiently And then came the ants, the frogs and the snakes Slithering and sliding through my clean white sheets Rustling from the bushes, creeping from the leaves Every awful creature came a crawling over me I crushed them and killed them, but they came all the more So I ran in my nightshirt out onto the lawn But I tripped up on a tree root and they swarmed from the weeds A million little teeth tore me to pieces In the shadows of the thicket rain poured through the leaves And I was scattered in the mud beneath the dripping trees But from here and from there, from every direction Little voices sang under twigs and mosses And I swarmed and I gathered under logs and leaves I crawled and I slithered under rotting trees In the tangle of the bushes, underneath the wet leaves I am many and nothing and I crawl up on your knee