I first came across this in a book... A woman in the graveyard sat, Oooooo Very shoot and very fat. Oooooo She saw three corpses carried in Oooooo Very tall and very thin. Oooooo To the corpses the woman said, Oooooo "Will I be like you when I am dead?" Oooooo To the woman the corpses said, Oooooo "You will be like us when you are dead." Oooooo To the corpses the woman said, "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!" I always thought she screamed because the corpses spoke. But during my search for the poem, I realized that she's supposed to scream because she realizes her own mortality. It's a deep meaning that many of the versions seem to have lost. And after reading various versions in this thread, I developed my own version which, in my mind, has the most important elements: - a woman visiting a church/graveyard (I think the fact she is going to church is significant, because even though this implies she's "good" she'll still end up this way) - the woman seeing a corpse in some sort of gruesome condition - the woman asking if she'll be like that when she's dead, and receiving the reply of "yes." - the woman screaming at the answer. The only key part it's missing is the woman being skin and bones, which gives the poem its name... but I left it out for the description of the corpses. Throw in the "ooooo"s wherever it feels natural. A woman in a graveyard sat Fresh out of church in her Sunday hat She saw three corpses carried in Nothing but bones and rotting skin To the corpses the woman said, "Will I be like you when I am dead?" To the woman the corpses said, "You will be like us when you are dead." To the corpses the woman said, "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" [or something to that effect]
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