Vincent

by Tim Burton
and illustrated by AI
2022

Vincent Malloy is seven years old
He's always polite and does what he's told

For a boy his age, he's considerate and nice
But he wants to be just like Vincent Price

He doesn't mind living with his sister, dog and cats
Though he'd rather share a home with spiders and bats

There he could reflect on the horrors he's invented
And wander dark hallways, alone and tormented

He likes to experiment on his dog Abercrombie
In the hopes of creating a horrible zombie

So he and his horrible zombie dog
Could go searching for victims in the London fog

Vincent is nice when his aunt comes to see him
But imagines dipping her in wax for his wax museum

His thoughts, though, aren't only of ghoulish crimes
He likes to paint and read to pass some of the times

While other kids read books like Go, Jane, Go
Vincent's favourite author is Edgar Allen Poe

One night, while reading a gruesome tale
He read a passage that made him turn pale

Such horrible news he could not survive
For his beautiful wife had been buried alive

He dug out her grave to make sure she was dead
Unaware that her grave was his mother's flower bed

His mother sent Vincent off to his room
He knew he'd been banished to the tower of doom

Where he was sentenced to spend the rest of his life
Alone with the portrait of his beautiful wife

While alone and insane encased in his tomb
Vincent's mother burst suddenly into the room

She said If you want to, you can go out and play
It's sunny outside, and a beautiful day

Vincent tried to talk, but he just couldn't speak
The years of isolation had made him quite weak

So he took out some paper and scrawled with a pen
I am possessed by this house, and can never leave it again.

His mother said You're not possessed, and you're not almost dead
These games that you play are all in your head

You're not Vincent Price, you're Vincent Malloy
You're not tormented or insane, you're just a young boy

You're seven years old and you are my son
I want you to get outside and have some real fun.

Her anger now spent, she walked out through the hall
And while Vincent backed slowly against the wall

The room started to swell, to shiver and creak
His horrid insanity had reached its peak

He saw Abercrombie, his zombie slave
And heard his wife call from beyond the grave

She spoke from her coffin and made ghoulish demands
While, through cracking walls, reached skeleton hands

Every horror in his life that had crept through his dreams
Swept his mad laughter to terrified screams

To escape the madness, he reached for the door
But fell limp and lifeless down on the floor

His voice was soft and very slow As he quoted
The Raven from Edgar Allen Poe

and my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor

shall be lifted...
Nevermore

The End