Imposters
On this moonlit ghoulish night, the wind plays tricks on us.
It spins around our ghostly wraps and makes the vampires cuss
as all the wicked creatures rise up from the dead
to escape from where they’re buried and do what we all dread.
Within the crypts where they’ve been resting, their hearts just barely beating,
they’ve been plotting to impersonate small kids out trick-or-treating.
They’ll go out ringing doorbells, never once exposing
the fact that they’re real ghosts and goblins, not just children posing.
They’ll grab up all the candy so when the next child begs
for Hershey bars or Reese’s bars, they’ll only get the dregs
the zombies left––the licorice and the candy corn,
so kids go home with empty bags—crying and forlorn.
This is the spell that witches cast in twenty-twenty-three
when they came out of hiding to see what they could see
And saw small nervy children impersonating witches
and goblins, ghosts and vampires, then making scary pitches
for popcorn balls and candy and other gastric pleasures.
Whereupon the witches decided to take measures
to turn the tables on the kids, they decided on a whim
to teach those kids a lesson by impersonating them!
So this is my fair warning that tonight when your bell rings,
and creatures wearing witch hats or fangs or other things
first mouth an incantation or issue hearty “Boos,”
then demand that you give candy, lest a trick ensues,
best give them all the Hershey bars met by their greedy eye,
the Reese’s Bars and Milky Ways that they might espy.
But also keep a stash on hand for later in the night
when all professional witches and ghosts have taken flight.
And you hear a feeble knocking of gypsies with tearstained eyes
and ghosts in wrinkled bedsheets and little goblin guys
with smiles all turned upside down and tummies empty of
chocolate and gummy bears and other sweets they love
because their competition has beat them to the knock,
please bring out all that candy that you have kept in stock
to fill the bags of children who come knocking at your door.
These fakers are the real creatures that Halloween is for!
For the Sunday Whirl Wordle, the prompt words are: ghoulish night wind tricks spin wrap spell wicked dead crypt buried within
What fun.
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Glad you like it. You must have been lying in wait!
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Well, THAT was a romp through absolutely all the human emotions! Not often one comes across a poem one can call BOTH cute and lovely…
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Thanks, Ana, for your lovely comment!
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👍
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youcate do much fun
LOve the verses but even more, the grand photos of those kids. You are the best. Ann
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Ann, because the fraccionamiento I live in is built on a mountain, it is a very long climb up to the top (and I am one block from the top) so we all take our candy down to the entrance and folks volunteer to give it out there. These pictures were taken there. They really go all out. One Halloween, I went to Forgottenman’s house in Missouri for Halloween and got wonderful photos there as well. I love Halloween and miss going to the door, actually. That was my favorite activity when I came back from three years abroad and moved in with Patti…going to the door to take candy to Trick or Treaters! And remember our Poor Taste party? I still have a photo of you and Tony in your costumes.
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Good one Judy
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Thanks, Pensivity!!!
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You’re welcome Judy.
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Brought me back to my childhood trick-or-treating, Judy. There was one house where the man answered the door–I don’t recall how he was dressed–but he yelled “Boo!” and scared the hell out of us. Then he gave us each a quarter, which was unheard-of generosity for Halloween way back then, so we returned yearly.
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We went to a house while Trick or Treating once and the people gave us an entire box of Hershey bars. Now that I think of it it was probably because they had decided to close up for the night, but my sister and her friend decided it wasn’t right to take the entire box and told us each to take one and returned the rest of the box to the porch. Now that is integrity.
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Indeed it is!
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Aww, a cute precautionary tale.
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Sadje, do you have Trick or Treaters where you live? I would guess not.
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Nopes. In fact except a few people no one knows about Halloween. It’s not a part of our culture
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I thought that was the case..but you never know how one culture affects another over the years.
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We have been affected by the Hindu culture with whom we lived together for centuries.
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A wonderful combination of photos and poem
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Thanks, Derrick. I can’t remember..do they go trick or treating in Great Britain?
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It probably began about 40 years ago. Not part of my history
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It is now really big in Mexico, but this has happened over the past 25 years, I’d guess. It had just started when I moved here. Now it is very popular in my part of Mexico. This year there were more things for Halloween than for Day of the Dead in the local Walmart.
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I thought as much.
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Thanks, Derrick.
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Great tale, Judy!
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Thanks, Purple Pen!!
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