Welcome to Poetry Starters!
Volume 1, No. 4
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On Halloween
Needles hidden in apples,
a razor blade in a chunk of caramel,
and a father who laced his
childrens’ candy with cyanide
buying their young lives
with an insurance policy---
terrible tricks. These are
the reasons why we
go to the mall for Halloween.
Instead of walking through the
darkness from door to door,
mothers a few steps behind,
part of the thrill the darkness wrapping itself
around us. So much is lost--
the chirp of crickets, the whoosh
of owls and bats and the Coopers
hawk as they slip away,
the distant hum of city traffic,
the dampness of the air,
such softness, so much mystery.
At the mall, there’s not a trace
of night, as if all the light from the
neighbors’ porches, the passing cars,
the lingering sun and rising moon,
has been sucked into its wide aisles.
We go from store to store, dig deeply
into the buckets of candy that each
proprietor has placed at the door,
guarded by a witch or
robot or lone ranger. Thousands
of us, one by one, reach for our
handfuls of chewy candy. There’s
more sugar in the mall this night
than there is in all of Louisiana,
Nebraska or Cuba, more sugar
than anyone can bear.
But the night, the utter sweetness
of the dark, has gone missing.
The more terrible trick.
Kathi Appelt, October 5, 2002
Halloween is one of my favorite holidays! At least it used to be. When my sisters and I were kids, we loved to get dressed up and join the rest of the neighborhood kids for trick or treating. It was truly a night that belonged to us kids. On Halloween, we could be fearless in our travels between houses despite the darkness.
Nowadays, however, there’s so much fear in the air (with reason) that whole communities have decided to provide alternatives for trick-or-treaters. Here in my town, the local mall hands out candy to young goblins. It’s a responsible and welcome alternative. But it seems as if something is lost. What do you think?
1. Write a poem about your own experience of trick-or-treating. Be sure to use all the senses: sight, sound, touch, smell, and of course, TASTE!
2. When you dress in a costume, what happens? Tell a story about a time you wore a disguise. Was it for Halloween? a costume party? a play? Costumes make us feel differently. How did you feel? Write about it.
3. Have you ever played a trick on someone? Has someone ever played a trick on you? Write about it.
4. How does your school or community celebrate Halloween? With a festival? A haunted house? Some churches have special performances on Halloween in order to scare kids into making good choices? Have you ever participated in something like that? What was it like? Does the local mall hand out candy? Does the hospital x-ray it? Write all about it.
Happy Writing!
Kathi Appelt
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