spooks and terrors

pumpkin spice and apple cider
dance dizzying tunes before
kids dressed in their costumes
rush off to find candy to
consume,
and behind their masks
they feel there is nothing to fear;
but there are always monsters lurking in the dark
human or elsewise standing and waiting
for easy prey—
moonlight rises, stars disappear behind clouds;
halloween is in full swing
most children are sleeping now
but the adults have come out to play
not realizing
they just as easily could be prey
for the things lurking in the woods that are not
owls,
there are werewolves with yellow grisly teeth
ready to rip apart flesh from sinew;
and vampires whose fangs desire to tear open
flesh and hear the screams of those who fall victim
to their hunger—
but there are other things, too,
some unspeakable and without name;
waiting and watching and waiting some more—
spooks and terrors they could deliver to you.

 

Linda M. Crate’s poetry, short stories, articles, and reviews have been published in a myriad of magazines both online and in print. She has six published chapbooks A Mermaid Crashing Into Dawn (Fowlpox Press – June 2013), Less Than A Man (The Camel Saloon – January 2014), If Tomorrow Never Comes (Scars Publications, August 2016), My Wings Were Made to Fly (Flutter Press, September 2017), and splintered with terror (Scars Publications, January 2018), More Than Bone Music (Clare Songbirds Publishing House, March 2019), and one micro-chapbook Heaven Instead (Origami Poems Project, May 2018). She is also the author of the novel Phoenix Tears (Czykmate Books, June 2018).