Suzanne Ondrus

AND THE CHILDREN SING "MR. CARL BACH"

Mr. Carl Bach, Bach, Bach
under key and lock, lock, lock
under the sheriff’s eye, eye, eye
cause he slew Mrs. Bach, Bach, Bach

Just wanted to whip, whip, whip
his wife to agree, agree, agree
when not, he did the devil’s deed, deed, deed.
The law he didn’t heed, heed, heed.

Old Charley Dutchman, Dutchman, Dutchman
who bought wet land, wet land, wet land.
How people mocked, mocked, mocked
and so his troubles began, began, began,

till one night he flipped, flipped, flipped,
hacked Mary’s head to jelly, jelly, jelly,
cut her up like a weed, weed, weed
and killed the baby in her belly, belly, belly.

Oh, the crowd’s so dense, dense, dense!
Get a place at the fence, fence, fence
to see Carl up close, hang, hang, hang!
Come and pay your five cents, cents, cents!


*Inspired by the children’s clapping song “Miss Mary Mack”. This is meant as an audience participatory clapping song.


The Dark Room's YouTube video performance of "And the Children Sing...":



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Suzanne confesses: "I was struggling with rhyme and getting children’s perspectives on the murder. A friend suggested I look at clapping songs. It was such an odd juxtaposition, but one that let me envision how this news permeated the whole town, even filtered to young ears."

SUZANNE ONDRUS' first book, Passion Seeds, won the 2013 Vernice Quebodeaux Prize. She was Gordon Square Review’s 2022 runner up winner for prose, the 2013 Reed Magazine Markham Poetry Prize winner, a 2017 featured UNESCO World Book Capital poet in Guinea, Conakry, and a 2018-2020 Fulbright Scholar to Burkina Faso. Her work delves into love, desire, different cultures, history, racism, body image, African fashion, and women’s sexuality. Her forthcoming poetry book, Death of an Unvirtuous Woman (Finishing Line Press) from which these poems come, examines domestic violence and homicide in an 1881 Ohio German immigrant couple from Wood County. Hear her read on her YouTube channel Suzanne Ondrus and find her updates on suzanneondrus.com.