Zombie Ball
Slice of liver, ooze of spleen—
add them to the soup tureen.
See all the pallid corpses preen?
They seek to woo the zombie queen.
Complexions chalky white or green
through the haunted house careen,
much rowdier on Halloween
than all the holidays between.
For dVerse Poets Quadrille Challenge: Careen
These questions were answered for the prompt: Squirrely Share Your World, Nov 1, 2021
Ollie at the head of the table. Kukla, an honored guest.
For Brian’s challenge, we are asked to publish the last photo we took each month. I always forget to take a special shot, so it really is pot luck for me.
For Bushboy’s Last on the Card Challenge.
Wheeler Dealer
Our precocious daughter, swathed in leather, first tattoo
in view below her crop top, reached out and grabbed a few
peanuts from the table and demanded, “Amirite?”
Crumbled off the peanut shells and took a hungry bite.
She had argued that a motorbike was the best solution
to getting her to school with minimum pollution.
(Our driving her to school, consuming so much gas,
creates carbon monoxide at a level that’s most crass.)
“Umitebee” said her father, and I nodded my accord.
As her sole benefactors, just what we could afford
influenced our decision, and instead of motorbike,
we simply told our daughter to go and take a hike!
Prompt words are benefactor, leather, precocious, and amirite,
am·i·rite: exclamation ,INFORMAL, US am I right? (used to invite confirmation or assert that one’s previous statement is correct) “not much point to it now, amirite?”
Click on photos to enlarge.
Yesterday I showed a photo of a hibiscus flower and said there were four different colors of flowers on the bush. Here is the proof of it. The last flower is the one I published yesterday as well. Amazing. I don’t think it is grafted. I just think this is this bush’s “thang.”
We came early, on October 31, to avoid the crowds of Nov. 1 and 2. Friends came to help me decorate the graves. Beer, water, dead bread, chocolate and marigolds completed the decor and la offrendas. Then we used our extra marigold petals to decorate several other graves that seemed as though no one was going to remember them. Today there were a few dozen families decorating the graves of loved ones. Tomorrow it will be busy and on Nov. 2 even busier.
Web
Please do not procrastinate when walking ‘neath these wires,
for one who does so may not get that for which he aspires.
Trick or Treat acquires more meaning . Must I even mention
that straying too close to this web may bring unsought detention?
Heed well my warning for tonight what seems to be is not.
As you look for treats you seek tonight, you also may be sought.
This spooky spider is not fake, in fact it is too real.
It will abet your progress and make of you a meal.
This spider, viewed in my friends Beck and Lach’s yard, was HUGE. It’s body alone was three inches long. Just in time for Halloween. No need for other decorations.
Prompt words today are procrastinate, trick, spooky, abet and detention.
This particular hibiscus is not in my garden. I had to stop the car to photograph it in Mirasol!!
For Cee’s FOTD prompt
The Haunting
When bells toll at midnight, the chiming of each bell
signals that the scarlet one has begun the knell
to release the ghoulish souls and all the bats of Hell!
They seep up through our floorboards and wait for light of day,
twist themselves into our minds as we helpless lay,
toying with our dreaming as they pause along the way.
They seek out the damp corners everywhere they go,
trying to relieve the parch of the fires below,
cooling off scorched spirits in the river’s flow.
As a sort of trial, they may choose a wild horse,
winding bony fingers through its mane, they guide its course,
streaming through the heather and leaping over gorse.
But when dusk comes to dim the sun and tuck away the light,
it is the time for spirits to begin their fearsome flight
and the frightening of humans will become their main delight.
Then as children mime their horrors while going trick-or-treating,
when they see a darker shadow or hear a wild heart beating,
they may feel more evil presences in spirits they are meeting.
As they go door-to-door or wander a dark lane,
they may detect the real creatures that they seek to feign,
and feel a certain horror that they can’t explain.
So, children out on Halloween, heed each one that you meet.
Be sure the ghoulish one you pass really just wears a sheet,
and remember that a human ghost will be possessed of feet!
These are the prompt words for Wordle 525: ring, scarlet, light, damp, fright, trick, chime, bat, floor, ghoulish, trial.
These are the pieces I’ll be showing at Jesus Lopez Vega’s “Dia de Muertos” Group Show at his studio gallery, Rio Zula #7 in Ajijic from 4-7 PM on November 2. (Rio Zula is the street one block west of Yves Restaurant and the street Casa Linda is on.)
Click on photos to enlarge size and read captions.
Since it looks like the captions are cut off in the enlarged versions of the photos, here is the complete description of the pieces:
Davey Jones’ Locker
Davy Jones’ Locker is a metaphor for the bottom
of the sea: the state of death among drowned sailors
and shipwrecks. It is used as a euphemism
for drowning. Silver coins spilling from a pirate chest
seem to be doing these victims of shipwreck
at sea no good at all. Media includes sand and shells
collected from various Mexican beaches by the artist.
Day of the Dead in Mexico
Offerings to the dearly departed include my
miniaturized version of a real book:
Noche de Muertos Muestrario Poetico en Michoacan,
a volume of Day of the Dead poems.
Waiting for the day of the Dead
Father and Child skeletons wait
patiently for Dia de Muertos and
their yearly portion of “dead bread.”
Altar
This skeleton has already consumed
one loaf of dead bread and is
ready for his next one.
These are the artists in the show:
Poster art is by Antonio Lopez Vega.
Please join us there for art, music, refreshments and to meet the artists!
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 