October Nights

 
October was my favorite month:
fall leaves and harvest
Ramadan and New Year
And finally, as nights get longer,
Halloween.
As a little girl I dressed up as
cowboy, princess, cloud and rainbow
and shyly opened my bag for elderly hands
with candy, cooing "So Sweet!"
 
But then, when kids my age walked near
in hoods with chalk, socks,
eggs and water balloons
I put away the candy and gauze.
Halloween became Mischief Night
and like a tarnished gold coin
I slipped away to hide and pray
"Don't let the cat out!"
"Lock the garage."
"Remember that year the heat ducts were filled
with shaving cream and egg?"
"Don't answer the door!"
Because "knock knock"
"Who's there?"
Mischief Night.
What more?
Hell itself.   Death.
 
I remember an old Jewish story
my Daddy used to tell about Death
and a miraculously elderly man:
He ate a full bulb of garlic every night before bed
So, when Death came to call,
When Death tapped him on the shoulder
He turned around to yell "Whoooo's theeeeere?"
and fumed Death away with his breath.
 
But I do not fear Death in its normal guise.
I fear undisguised Youth
and his absence of Soul.
Hell is the growing Child with no moral sense
Hell is the Mischief Child
 
who knows we don't bounce back
like cartoon characters—and likes it;
who parties to the sound of pain
and cannot be fumed away.
October was my favorite month
with brilliant leaves flying and
harvests feeding multiple Thanksgivings and
festivals of lights
Holy and Peaceful
in the longest nights
Dearest child
give me back
my October nights.

 

 

Posting this for Open Link Monday at Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads, where Kerry loves to read poetry--and so do we all!  Let me know you were here and I'll be around, but not tonight because I have a writing workshop.  

AND!! After reading Hedgewitch's intro to  Open Link Night ~ Week 64 at dVerse Poet's Pub , I cannot resist re-posting this for her.  I had intended to post this one: Performance Haiku, but it's not as much fun.

Susan L. Chast

10/18/2006

Poetry Club;
revised 2012
Chosen for book 11/9/2013.