it has a little bit of some elements from dia de los muertos, or day of the dead, which is a mexican holiday comparable to memorial day, but celebrated at the same time as halloween, and uses the kind of imagery that halloween does. of course i also had to throw in a shout out to my homie poe.
The sudden ev’ning chill
Of fall
Comes quickly as it
Ever does
And the canyon winds come
Blowing
To warn all that night is
Coming.
I walk quietly along
In thought as if a spectre;
Mem’ry’s sullen song,
Sharp stabbing pains reflecting.
Beneath my feet the red, the
Orange and yellowed leaves,
From highest limbs fall dead.
Summer’s fall they do bereave.
The wind picks up in
Painful, dreadful, wailing moan
As if the earth in sin
To her dreary grave did go.
No coat to stop the cold,
In seeking tender warmth,
My own chatt’ring frame I hold;
Oh, if I could but touch her heart…
But that dark death,
The grim and blackened reaper,
Has in merc’less stealth
Sought from my grasp to keep her.
I see her loving eyes
I feel the softness of her hair;
A fool for life’s cold lies
Dark death has left me bare.
The last embers of day
Give way to chilling darkness
As they slowly, surely fade,
The moon her stage-call hearkens.
Through creeping, sneaking clouds
O’er low and huddled hills
In eerie silent sound
Her naked light revealed.
I descend into the town
Where once our burning love
Did in fruitfulness abound
As if nurtured from above.
Here life continues on,
Fearsome, ghastly shapes I see,
As children run in song
A trick for a treat on All Hallows Eve.
Down through the darkened streets
I wander through a haze
These children seeking sweets
And the lanterns all ablaze;
These people in their costumes
Taking joy in deepest fears,
I ask ‘What if they only knew?’
Death’s reality springs bitter tears.
I journey toward the lane
On which my home is built,
And my mem’ry like a flame
The hollow walls with brightness fills.
I recall a roaring fire
And pumpkins’ carven faces
By my own hand trembling, tired,
To bring light to shadowed places.
Their ghoulish forms contorted,
We carried them outside
And placed them on the porches;
Small lit candles gave them life.
And from their perch they’d watch
To keep dark spirits from this haven,
As we frightful stories taught,
Of wolves, dark lords, and ravens.
I turn in lamenting sorrow
Now down the lane again
No joy I find to borrow
The lanterns light the way.
Lined along the streets,
With fearsome faces glowing
They keep the ghosts upon their feet,
Down eternal rivers rowing.
I leave this place of sadness,
And go on to darker roads,
Lest I descend into a madness
And destroy my old abode.
But on to quiet gardens
On silent solitary knolls,
There stand stones of the departed,
Here rest the lonesome souls.
I hear a howling in the distance
The wolf’s cry gives me a shiver
His love kindled in an instant
From the moon’s cold spell he’ll never be delivered.
And there upon a barren tree,
Near the blackened iron gate,
A stately raven that I see
‘Nevermore,’ he quoth my fate.
Forward through a narrow path,
Lined on each side by graves,
A colder chill this dark place hath,
Than all others which I’ve strayed.
At last I see that somber stone
For which I’ve come to see
Believing she is surely gone
And long forgotten me.
But on that stone I see a pumpkin
Its flick’ring face by candle glows,
And a painted vase, which, there within
Rests a bloody scarlet velvet rose.
A bony smile splits my head
Of me a mem’ry she has saved,
For it is not her tis dead,
But I who call this bed my grave.
So now I feel the warmth return
And within a beating seems;
I make the dirt my quilted urn
And return to deathly dreams.
I can taste the moon so sweet,
I fly freely through the stars,
The dark world ‘neath my feet,
And a song within my rotten heart.
So to the living now I sing,
These ancient words so true
Do not fear the death bells’ ring
When they come to ring for you.
Let life be full of love, of
Many sad and happy things,
Till you join us here above,
Have a happy Halloween.
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