Young Saito listened to lots of music—

loved the tunes, the beats, and what the lyrics said.

The music often burrowed deep to make

earworms that repeated songs deep inside her head.

She would listen to songs so many times

they would echo on and on inside her ears.

These earworms repeated the tuneful sounds

until that was all that poor Saito could hear.

‘It’s only music though,’ she always said,

‘the noise will be gone in an hour or two.’

But not this earworm, for it stuck around;

and it scared Saito as the noise only grew.

The sickly sound sounded something like this:

Suru suru shiku! Suru suru SCHLIP!

No matter what she did, she heard the sound:

Suru suru shiku! Suru suru SCHLIP!

She spoke the sounds aloud—she sang them, too,

but they only grew louder throughout the night.

Saito heard this sound in one ear only. Yes,

she noticed, she heard it only in the right.

She couldn’t get the sound out of her head!

She feared even if dead she would have heard,

Suru suru shiku! Suru Suru SCHLIP!

Only sounds and not a single real word.

The sound inched right up to Saito’s eardrum:

Suru suru shiku! Suru Suru SCHLIP!

Then she felt something rip inside her ear.

Suru suru shiku! SURU SURU—RIP!

The sound finally stopped for poor Saito,

For it wasn’t music stuck in her head.

It was a real worm inching itself in.

Careful now, kids, for these things tend to spread!

Suru suru shiku! Suru Suru SCHLIP!

That is the earworm working its way in.

For now you have the awful earworm, too!

And your frail eardrum is growing very thin!

It’s eating your earwax as it inches in,

Suru suru shiku! SURU SURU SCHLIP!

It’s right up on your eardrum, sounding like this:

SURU SURU SHIKU! SURU SURU—RIP!