Halloween Sunset

There before your golden ember

I could easily remember

Ghoulish-faced trick-or-treaters dancing

Behind great bags and hopes a'prancing

On the eve of stark November.

Pumpkins sodden as they were

Original reasons now a blur

With faces carved in frightful laughter

Down from under the harvest gathered

To strew the way with garish mirth.

Yet there in Mama's kitchen stands 

A cook who's baking pies by hand

No trick could muscle such a treat

Of Golden brown and spicy sweet

She's made it known her pumpkin's plans.

And long October's night in walking

Toward a town were bravely stalking

Three autumn youth forsook the rest

In hopes their bounty would be the best

The fear of silence would stoke the talking.

Afar a howl is suddenly heard

Against the other's limbs they gird

A rustle, scratch, and frantic beat

That trips the other's toes to feet

It's just the owl - October's bird.

A raucous laughter surely followed

The afore-felt stomach swiftly swallowed

By visions of werewolves suddenly loosed

And fresh wolf bane and slashing tooth

Three tales of stardom now drilled hollow.

So, what? The booty's now in reach

The jack-o-lantern beckons each

You ring the bell, I'll knock instead

We'll gorge on cookies and ginger bread

And cider to quench the thirst we've breached.

Then wearily trudging home at last

Tomorrow's feast a school day's fast

And lunch will be an afterthought

Of jelly beans and juggernuts

And specters in the looking glass.

The kamikaze truckers wheel

At home the dealers freedom steal

Adrift in circa '86'

The bogeyman now needs a fix

Dear Halloween has gotten a chill.

The apple, once a student's lark

Its exciting crunch vitality's mark

Now cyanide and strychnine laced

Razors mar the waxen faee

A terrible hoax does grace the dark.

And children look about in fear

Unknown to them the witching year

For Easter eggs are now unsafe

And devilment has Christmas' place

An aging baby now appears.

And like a prodigal, lonesome member

Lost among the thickened timber

Days like dinosaurs ruined and buried

Tomorrow's goblin now miscarried

I'm drawn so to your dying ember.