All Hallows’ Eve

There was a lurking, watchful dread
Rustling deliberately through the trees
Like the silent soul of something dead
Searching, whilst carried on the breeze

Shrill, the wind was sickly swirled
Lifting leaves that spun then hovered
As if on this darkly night this world
Would be visited briefly from graves uncovered

As at my back a Nor’easter was chasing
Now glancing, squinting, searching about
A confusing pang in my heart outpacing
My rational thought at odds with doubt

Cautiously, I quickened my pace
Trusting feet to find eyes in the night
Knowing my mind just could not trace
Those former steps I had taken in light

But Oh! Now the path seemed utterly strange
Shadows where sunshine had earlier glistened
Stumps and trunks as if deranged
Now mocking as if they somehow listened

I was lost! As a panic crowded my brain
So close to home, the path should turn right
But it circled left... and I circled in vain
I stopped stone cold and went rigid with fright

No blacker night had a moon ever deserted
With not a star to distinguish ground from sky
My thoughts raced from sane to perverted
And nothing made sense but to sit down and cry

Till...like an ax thrust heavily, deep into oak
A thud on my shoulder spun me suddenly around
I ached to scream yet hardly even spoke
A fear so compelling I was sucked to the ground!

There before me in the dark looming wild
Was a shadowy figure with a face full of holes
It oozed and contorted and sneered as it smiled
And soon it was surrounded by ghoulish-like souls

In shock I watched as it steadied to its task
With an expression so ghastly yet somehow serene
When to my amazement it just ripped off a mask
And in a child’s voice it cried, “Happy Halloween!”