Samhain

Sitting on the porch, surrounded by pumpkins, handing out candy, drinking beer and reading the early poetry of Galway Kinnell.

A kid just walked up, dressed in black, wearing black sunglasses and carrying a cell phone.

“Tell me about your costume.”

“I’m Neo.”

He got two handfuls for that one.

The first Batman I see, they get three handfuls.

The pumpkins were rotten when we carved them last night. There are six of them and they’re starting to scorch and it smells just like marijuana.

Last night, digging out pumpkin guts, Sam asked whey we carve pumpkins on Halloween.

“Well, why do you think we carve pumpkins?”

Julia chimed in, “To show how much we love Jesus?”

That sound you hear is Jack Chick turning over in his grave.

I’m dressed all in black and, with a white t-shirt under my longsleeved black one, I look like a priest. The two horns help.

I never got around to doing anything new and scary for the season like I’d hoped (I won’t be telling the best horror story I know anytime soon) but this poem is kinda spooky and fun to read out loud. Or you could try this one or even this one if you were desperate.

You’re gonna need the free Quicktime player, by the way, to listen to the audio files. Sorry Windows users. Now you know how the rest of us feel.