When the Hunter's moon is but a sliver
and the orange ball
of Harvest is just forming,
the ghostly times are coming.
Paper skeletons, witches and goblins,
Halloween candy and black cats
will visit every store.
Black crepe paper draped tombstones
props to to a play titled "Trick or treat?"
From every part of town the unearthly
visitors announce their intent
to arrive from the grave.
Haunted houses and apple dunking,
part of a
child's candy tempered holiday.
Children have fears,
but not from the dead.
All the ghostly souls are no match
for the terror from the living.
For what ghost shoots
from a driving car?
And which witch
flies drunk on her broom?
Are there skeletons who make war?
When do goblins harass
at "tailhook" parties?
And this candy man
provides a deadly candy.
And haunted house
is better than no house.
And a bag of treats
beats the Somalian child's fare.
No, the cast of thousands
from the grave
do not frighten like the living.
Children can take their chances
with the dead.
Its the living who give a daily scare.
Too bad there is no season
to celebrate the demise of
the living terrors.