By adrien rain burke

They'll come tonight - by pumpkin-light
In the company of fallen leaves
Drifting through the darkening streets
Lanterns bobbing, capes aflutter:
They'll hold us up for bags of sweets.

All the witches, pirates, gypsies,
Mocking death's regalia -
Laughing out their "Trick or Treats"
And before the Jack O'Lanterns
On our porches have begun
To candle-dance and splutter
All the fairies and the ghosties and
The goblins will be gone
And the quiet streets, unhaunted - long
Oh, long before the dawn

And each time I have to wonder
What eldritch ritual or rite
We've enacted on this night
(All unknowing - like the birds
who have begun their yearly flight)
And how long this ancient singing
Has been going on.

The littlest ones who came tonight
- the new ones to this game of fright -
They won't be long upon these streets
in their masks and costumes -
They won't tremble so next year
or come round with their mothers

And still the changes won't be through
Soon enough they'll scorn
Death's Masquerade, and hurry on
- all unknowing - towards The Other

The candy's almost gone,
And I don't hear children's voices
I think that's it tonight
Lets just turn off the porch light. . . . . .

Autumn's cold new wind sings Samhain's Song
Sings of caves, and nomad's tents, and villages
braced hard against the winter
where once we told the
ghostly stories around the sacred fire
Or listened to the banshee's wail
While our grannies told the tale

Oh long,
Long before The Dawn.