Ring around the rosie…

Hide the stench of the dead
And the blood on your hands
As you creep through my streets, my cities, my towns

Have you no mercy?
No regret in your mind?
You ravage your sickness
Do you not hear their moans?
Their begs and their pleas
Echo loud in my streets and my cities and towns

Black marks that scream danger
Dot their pale skin
Have you no shame?
Is it all just a game?

Gather round, let’s join hands
And sing an innocent song
Drown out their agony
Come, sing along

Ashes , ashes
We all fall down.

A/N---(long-ish author's note ahead.)

Ring Around The Rosie is a children's nursrey rhyme with a much deeper meaning: The Black Death. The Black Death, also known as the bubonic plague, ravaged Europe during the Middle Ages. It's symptoms included swellings in the groin or armpit, often referred to as tumors, which soon would spread to other regions of the body. Along with these swellings came black or purple spots, which varied in size and were a sign of inevitable death. Victims of the bubonic plague also experienced frequent headaches, high fevers, bleeding, nausea and vomiting and joint pain. 4 out of 5 people who contracted the plague died within eight days.

The amount of dead was so numerous that those left alive had nothing to do with the bodies. They would be thrown into the streets, left decomposing in great piles.

In the rhyme, the "pocket full of posies" describes how people would keep flowers in their pockets in an attempted to block out the stench of death all around them. "Ashes, ashes" is often sung as "A-choo a-choo" or "A tissue a tissue", describing the suffering of plague victims. "We all fall down" represents the deaths of the victims.