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 Feb 2021 Logan Robertson
Cné
With Trick or Treat a-loomin'
and the harvest moon a-gloom'n
and the ghosts and goblins loose upon the streets

You can bet your bottom dollar
that you'll hear a screech and holler
when you open up your door to give ‘em treats.

But beware of werewolves howlin'
and the zombies who are prowlin'
In the shadows in the corners of your mind.

For the scary cogitation
in your own imagination
is the one that you have mentally designed.

So...remember you'r not seeing
any supernat'ral being...
they're just costumes and some make up on the kids.

But be sure and take no chances
e're they start their spooky dances
Give them candy or the ghouls might flip their lids!

Happy Halloween my neighbors
on this night of ghostly labors....
And good luck.  You can't escape it if you could.

They'll arrive in cars and wagons...
dressed as witches, bats and dragons.
And they won't all be from your own neighborhood.

BOO!
 Feb 2021 Logan Robertson
Bardo
As a little child you used dread going up there on your own... to bed
Climbing those stairs all alone, all the time getting further away from the light down in the hall
With every step it was like your fear would increase tenfold
You could hear your little heart beating, pounding away inside
Beyond the bright hall light's promise of safety
Beyond there... lay danger... the darkness
The Darkness at the top of the stairs.

For you knew they were waiting there for you
Hidden a little way back in the shadows, on the landing
Evil elves and goblins, cruel giants, trolls, wicked witches and fairies... the Wolfman
They held nets ready to catch you in
And sacks slung over their backs, to bundle you into
Ready to steal you away from your family,
Like the Ice Queen on her sleigh
Ready to spirit you away to some Ice Palace faraway
To a world all frozen, turned to cold
A great prize was a human child.

Even when you'd got to bed, you'd hide your little head under the covers
Listening fearfully for their murmurs
You knew like in Dr. Who the Daleks they were coming
They were just in your wardrobe waiting,
And underneath your bed, silver Cybermen too
With their cold expressionless inhuman metallic faces
You'd lie there shivering, your little heart turned sideways in fear
You were just a little child drowning, drowning in a sea, a sea of monsters.

                            II

Looking back on it now, looking back
The Darkness, it was innocent, completely innocent
It held no danger, no fear and no monsters either
It was only the world that had coloured it so
Painted them on the screen of your imagination
All those scary TV shows, those dark fairytales and religious stories  
Yea, it was only the world that painted it so
A world so ignorant of the inner life of a little child...a little boy
A world obsessed, a world in love with... with Monsters.

But why then...why did you beg to be let stay up late with them, to watch those scary shows
Knowing you'd later have to face that lonely walk of fear up to your bed upstairs
Probably accompanied by some new monster, some new terror gleaned from that night's show
To add to your burgeoning collection
Why? Why this fascination with scaring yourself, with hurting, damaging yourself ?
Why did you want that for yourself ?
You wanted to be like them, didn't you, the grown ups, the older ones,
This is what they did and this is what you thought you had to do as well
You looked up to them, these were the people you loved, that you aspired to be like one day
So you had to do what they did too,
You wanted into their world and to do this you had to like the things they liked too.

And so, your innocence as a child was overthrown, denied
It was something to be ashamed of,
Something to be reviled and ridiculed and hated
It was pilloried in the marketplace
And all the monsters instead, they were installed.

                       III

I remember as a little child when watching TV if you thought something scary was coming up
You'd rise and say "I don't think I want to see this bit"
And you'd go and hide behind the chair, occasionally peeping out, waiting for the 'bad bit' to be over so you could return.
I remember too when very little, the first time I seen a Halloween mask, a witch's mask my brother put on
How I cried in terror, I was terrified every time he put it on
I thought he'd been suddenly transformed, that some dark kind of magic had been performed
That he'd changed into a witch, that reality had become distorted into something grotesque and ugly and evil
How scared I was.

Just imagine that.. imagine a being so little, so fragile, so sensitive...so pure of heart
That the slightest aberration, the slightest thought could hurt it
(Could this be where we went wrong...the lonely god).

Way up on his pulpit, a ranting preacher raves
About devils and demons and dark things everywhere
"It's the truth, it's the truth", he shouts, " it's in the book, it's in the book!!! "
Before him his poor congregation lies, all numbed and terrorised,
And no god whatsoever, no god at all to be seen
Only maybe a God of Terror, another monster.

                         IV

So, will you not come back then, back to the Old House
And amid all the dust and the cobwebs, find me again... still there,  all alone
Will you not dare lift this veil, this veil of shame
And look again upon my face
That which the world so greatly despises
This terrible terrible innocence
Do you not remember me, once, once upon a time
Am I not fair of face...not lovely... a thing beautiful to behold.

Is there not one who would do battle for me, champion me
Like St. George and his dragon
Shield me from the fiery onslaughts of this world
Is there not one who would come
Is there not one.
This was written after reading some cases in the newspaper about young school kids who just dropped dead while playing their weekend football game. I think they have a name for it, Sudden Child Death Syndrome or something. I do paintings sometimes of my past and I can remember the very real fear I felt as a kid going to bed on my own after viewing scary shows and scary ideas. The thing is the shows & films they have now are a hundred times more scary than the ones we had, our shows would be like comedies compared to what goes now, the more hideous and gory and shock inducing the better. Different times but a child's heart remains the same.
 Feb 2021 Logan Robertson
Onoma
as impressions shorten their form,

an owl leaves daylight suddenly.

flattening its wings over an Ocean,

all-ways light.

alighting at your window, one

motion free from stillness.

so You can hear the sound contradicted

by the customariness of nothing fathomed.

there's something that worries over

an owl that resurrects daylight on a

crooked limb.

the speed of acceptance deemed late.

the owl was there once...

leaving out everything.

And would you know it?

an owl's downcurved beak smiled

back...reappearing.

falling down lifelessly over branches

that redrew the most vehement disappearances.
Every song has a serenade
All the plays a theme
Everyday has its mysteries
And time has its end

As we all find her limits
As we come against the wall
Alone except for memories
We bend but never fall

With everything that's
Come before
with that star
Near our grasp
Just out of reach
Is the goal we
Have searched

You can't take riches anywhere
There's no silk or gold
There where we keep
Only our soul

Someday the roses wilt
The monuments built
Crumble, words that were spoken, still

Echo beyond, and eyes
Weve felt,, all the hearts melt,
Though flesh turns to dust
Our energy is forever more

We return to the stars
Dance with me, dance in the unmown grass, the gopher
holes rise edges to unseeing feet.

Dance with me, swing me over the moon on a night I will never forget, rise me to the unseen images borne to fruit in Plath.

Daddy come back is the song
played over the sky's speakers.
You only loved me.  No, no one else.  

Dance with me, waltz to the tune of my lately mother's shod torn
feet. She of the crystal heel.
Her song died in November.

Dance with me Daddy, play
your horn to the tune of stars
banged on my dead ears.

It's over, the dance of tears ended in motionless held breath.
Air of pure delight under no one's grave ended long ago.

Quite funnily, so still the
sadness of the night.


Caroline Shank
my little cat is funny a happy chap his he
in everything he does he brings a smile to me.

playing with his toys and his little ball
trying to the catch flies landing on the wall.

such a funny chap always wants to play
he  brings a smile to me every single day.
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