Hallowed

Halloween1

Tonight is the night for a sinister scene:
When the bare trees bask in the full moon’s light,
the spirits will stir, for tonight’s Halloween.

The spiders start spinning their squalor so keen,
 while witch-chants crescendo in vanishing light,
 because it’s the night for a sinister scene!

As fog tricks our senses to sense the unseen
death throes of autumn—October’s last fight—
the spirits will stir, for tonight’s Halloween.

Gorging on sweets ‘til our faces turn green,
we party with all of our fake-blood-soaked might—
we’re ready, all right, for a sinister scene!

From ether of frothy libations we glean
a strange sort of yen for a terrible fright:
The spirits will heed, for tonight’s Halloween!

Our most hallowed guests, the shadows, have been
witness to all of our wrongs not set right…
Tonight is the night for a sinister scene!
Make way for the spirits—tonight’s Halloween!

STEPHANIE L. HARPER