All Hallows…

All Hallows…

With condolences to all who died in South Korea.

It is late

And the streets are empty

After the chaos of Halloween

So many people hiding behind

Insubstantial masks.

They didn't really need a costume

To pretend,

Everything about contrived

Celebratory consumption

Reeks of desperation.

Good money is always thrown after bad

The smell of sweat

Still lingers in dark corners

Where too many people, in dire straits,

Imagining themselves to be

Hidden from view

Without compunction,

Lacking a reasoned argument

And in a moment of urinary crisis

Relieved themselves, creating a dirty runnel

Of foul-smelling liquid,

Pooling into the gutter

Re-hydrating a dry bun

And tofu burger

Left to fester in the late-night heat

Which clung to the ground like superglue,

Humidity is a vampire.

After midnight

Is a good time to wander

Through the aftermath

It rarely bites back.

Fat rats wait patiently

For their time to come

After sad Possums have had their way,

Bats whistle overhead

Leather wings rustle

More gothic than Michael Myers.

What would happen if I believed in ghosts

It doesn’t take very much to conjure them up

In this post-apocalyptic world.

If I did believe

I would tell them to leave well alone

Just take themselves away

And stop appearing at the end of the bed

Gazing forlornly at the sleeping forms

Of the living, wishing them dead.

I would ask the angels to protect you

I wouldn’t want them to harm a hair on

Your head

If there was a god I would tell him

The same thing.

Divinity can not excuse the vindictive

Which is an all too human trait

But I don’t believe,

At least not today,

Who knows just what will happen

To my personal belief system

Come the morning,

After the cleaners have

Conducted their rapture

And every trace of a lost soul

Has been swept away.