Okay, here are my more polished lyrics, with the tune, this time (I hit upon "Irish Washerwoman, in a minor key). It actually turned out longer, instead of shorter, because the melody gave me the room, so I decided to use all of that to fill in some blanks in the story.

I'll be happy to discuss particular lines, metaphors, word choices and the like here, in public. I love group discussions of language. I find it sparks all sorts of creative ideas.


Lyrics:

1:
Oh, once we were citizens of a proud town.
It had taverns and churches and parks with playgrounds
All the people were handsome, the buildings were, too,
But monsters arrived, and they ruined the view.
The monsters are ugly, the monsters are strange
For they have different bodies, and have different brains
When we ask them the reason, they claim not to know
We tell them to leave, oh but they will not go.

And they are too different; they should not stay here
And we're very good people, we try to be fair.
So we led them a-way with a gentle tut-tut
Out into the forest, and locked the gates shut.

2:
It hap-pened again, and we did just the same.
And be-fore long, our small town had earned a great fame
And so many would come to learn just what we do
To keep all our mon-sters safely out of view.
We kept to our policy year after year
With the handsome in-side and the mon-sters out there
All the experts agreed 'twas the right thing to do,
For mon-sters are nothing like me or like you.

"They know that they're different, they know that they're strange
And this policy keeps them from hatred and shame,"
Then the experts would close with a gentle tut-tut:
"The mon-sters are happiest right where they're put."

3:
But out in the forest, outside of our town,
All the monsters were talking about our playgrounds
For to sing in our taverns and our churches, too
The monsters decided it was their fair due.
And so they marched back with their ungainly walks
And they made lots of noise with their squeaks and their squawks
And they said they were people, and didn't we know?
They said they were born here and they would not go.

We tried to be patient, we tried to explain
That the forest was better-- so dark and so green
But the monsters ignored all our gentle tut-tuts.
They claimed they were citizens and they stayed put.

Reprise:
Now monsters are running all over our town.
And they shop in our stores and play in our playgrounds
And we have to sit next to them in our church pews.
It's dis-gus-ting! They're no-thing like me or like you.

ABC notation for the score:

To hear the tune, copy the text below (starting with X:1, and ending with the closing square bracket), and paste it into the text window at

ABC Convert-A-Matic. Then, click the "submit" button. This will bring up a

new webpage; click the MIDI music file link.

X:1
T: Monsters in Town! (tentatively)        
C:Ann Magill
M:3/4
Q:1/4=150
K:C#min
G2 E2 C2| C2 B,2 C2| C2 E2 C2|E2 G2 F2|
E2 F2 D2| D2 B,2 D2|D2 F2 D2|F2 A2 G2|
F2 E2 C2|C2 B,2 C2|C2 E2 C2|E2 G4|
G2 F2 E2|F2 D2 G2|F2 E2 C2|C2 C4|
z4 G2|E2 C2 C2|B,2 C2 C2|E2 C2 E2|
G2 F2 E2|F2 D2 D2|B,2 D2 D2|F2 D2 F2|
A2 G2 F2|E2 C2 C2|B,2 C2 C2|E2 C2 E2|
G4 G2|F2 E2 F2|D2 G2 F2|E2 C2 C2|
C4 z2||G2 c2 A2|A2 E2 A2|A2 c2 A2|
c2 c2 B2|A2 B2 G2|G2 E2 G2|G2 B2 G2|
B2 B2 A2|G2 A2 c2|c2 G2 c2|c2 F2 c2|
c2 E4|E2 F2 E2|F2 D2 G2|F2 E2 C2|
C2 C4|]