Prize-Winning Poem for Halloween

In the spirit of Halloween--which should, ideally, take a light-hearted look at dark and scary things--ide, I'm happy and proud to include here the poem by my wife, Lynn Schiffhorst, which won First Place in the humor category recently at the Florida State Poets Association.

Lynn Schiffhorst                                                                       

ALL HALLOWS EVENING

 

When rain is falling in chilly wet sheets

And no one’s around in the town,

I pedal my bike to the churchyard and yell,

“All of you – out of the ground!”

As the bones in the clay start to whistle and hum,

They twitch and they stretch and they spring

From the flat horizontal in which they were laid

To a sitting and strutting and leaping parade.

 

As dancers they’re stiff, and they trample my toes,

But their smiles have a useful white glow

That light up like lanterns the dark sodden grave

Where they drop me as hopelessly slow.

How they caper and curtsey and blow the man down,

Dashing and flashing around and around,

Till I have to bellow, “Enough!  Underground!”

They go, but they go with a sneer and a frown!