The sculptured pumpkin grins to see
Small bands of goblins on a spree
Beneath a harvest moon.
His toothless smile of candlelight
Peers out upon this spooky night
As though he were immune.
He watches devils dressed in red,
Who other nights would be in bed,
Make boldly brave attack
Upon the neighbors’ lighted door,
And he who answers they implore
With widely opened sack.
He winks his eye with flick’ring flame
Because he knows them all be name …
Each cat and clown and ghost.
Beneath those masks of gaudy hue
He recognizes who is who
In this unearthly host.
Before the tallow taper’s low,
Two little tykes incognito,
Who’ve learned this night’s command,
Will haunt the houses close to home
Like convoyed specters scared to roam
‘Less Daddy’s near at hand.
Halloween