Halloween

Halloween 2015. We don't buy the candy until it's almost time for trick or treat-ers. One neighbor only buys enough candy for two apiece, based on last year's number. She was gone one year, and her husband was left to hand out candy. He was not informed of the "rule." He gave out handfuls, then ran out. He laughed. She laughed. They have been married a bit longer than us. I notice no blow-up skeletons on their lawn. Children will still be guaranteed two pieces of candy. I expect she will be home this year.

The neighbors next door

Have a blow-up skeleton

With a removable head

On their lawn.

The front door

Is covered

By a green witch.

We have three pumpkins,

One in each planter

On the front walk.

Three pumpkins

Surrounded by purple petunias,

And

A box of Halloween decorations

Including a screaming spider

Hides somewhere

In the basement.

We have not seen the box

In years.

Burning bush

Sometimes I don*t know that I*m waiting for something until it happens.  While I know full well we have a burning bush in the front yard, it is green most of the year.  It only began turning red yesterday.  I forgot I was waiting for this.

Finally the burning bush

In front

Has begun to burn.

We had enough cold

To signal

Autumn is here.

Overnight

It seems

The bush took the hint.

The sugar maple

In our neighbor*s backyard

Turned to red and orange

Overnight,

The hint travelled

Up and down the street

And beyond.

Today is Halloween.

It is gray and wet.

The long-awaited colors

Are finally in tune

With the season.

The stage is set.

The bush

Is burning.

The next right thing

My beloved and I sit at the dining table, name the things which must be tossed or given away.  This weekend we will completely clear the room for our exchange student.  Next weekend is for redecoration.  

I think about the person I sat with years ago who had a dirty white chair in her living room.  It loomed every time she walked in the house.  We made a plan together to get that white chair cleaned by the next time we met..  That one simple act got her unstuck.  It seemed magical to me. AA often talks about doing the next right thing.  I found myself offering the same counsel this week to another client.  Today we sit at the dining table and identify the next right thing for this weekend.

The room which will hold

Our French exchange student

Beckons.

Now the door,

cracked open,

Allows the possibility

Of emptying,

Then cleaning.

The Halloween decorations scream:

Light-up eyeballs,

Shivering ghosts,

The spider we put

In the front hallway

Many years ago.

Mr Green,

The talking miniature Christmas tree:

He cackles.

Endless partial rolls

Of red and green wrapping paper

We never could find every Christmas.

So each year

We added more.

The candle lights

For every window

Are there.

One fell

Burned a hole in my carpet

In Boston.

The room beckons

With holiday trappings,

Its door cracked open.

The deadline looms.

Two weeks from now

France arrives to stay with us

For two weeks.

All three of us

Most always

Work to deadline.

Hound of Hell

There*s something about seeing Halloween decorations, even the most elaborate ones, the day after Halloween, in full sunlight, that makes them lose their scary punch.  I have never been one for horror movies or the like.  Today, walking to Lake Ellyn with a friend, we saw the wraiths strung up looking like a stage set, and we laughed.  Two doors down was a motionless dog, looking as I have always imagined the Hound of Hell to look.   We wondered if he was stuffed he was so still.  No.  Real.  In the sunlight. No strings attached.  He never barked.  Never growled.  He just watched us walk by.  He is probably a really nice dog... who just happens to look like the Hound of Hell.

On the walk at high noon

The Halloween wraiths

Were strung in trees,

Last night*s display now in full sun.

Today

It looked like a stage set.

Two doors down

Full In the sun:

The dog: muscular, short-haired, brown,

Perfectly still.

His eyes were yellow.

He was

A perfect rendering

Of the Hound of Hell.

High noon, we walked, then

He moved, still, silent,

Walked the boundary

Of his yard.

Eyes yellow.

Still, silent, in the sunlight.

The perfect image

Of the Hound of Hell

At high noon.