Halloween 2017

Along the Grove

there is a restlessness amongst the trees
and leaves that thrash like ancient wings
as they beckon, sway, taunt, and tease
attempting to conjure the strangest things

the grove speaks a riddle, i hear it now
reciting each word in a rattling whisper
a single tale told by a thousand boughs
its maddening lore of summer and winter

its story grows in earnest with time
crawling through dark pages and memories
mocking the listener through nursery rhyme
an unending account of secret treacheries

well i am not afraid of the dark anymore
nor the phantoms in their jagged nest
the wispy figments of my youthful lore
my confident step they can attest

a billowing wind makes the earth shudder
mischievously fooling my mind and eyes
sweeping away lost fragments of summer
on an eastern gale autumn's voices rise

i leave it behind me, unshaken still
stowed firmly away in my mind's alcove
for the haunt in my bones that always will
and the song that calls from along the grove

Pumpkin Patch