Halloween

Halloween

 

Tonight’s the night they come with their sharp knocks upon our door

And peer their little faces in our window.

Tonight’s the night we drop the latch and swiftly climb our stairs

And let the cat sleep in our room

And pull the curtain so the light

Cannot escape and draw their eyes, up along our wall.

 

We lie in bed and breathe and know the cracks upon our wall

Are there although unseen.  Beyond our door

We hear the dust motes rise and settle, floating in no light.

How, if we locked our window,

Does a breeze stir through our room,

The music for a spider’s dance of footsteps on our stairs?

 

When we were young it was our feet that danced upon the stairs.

We feared no whispering breeze.  There was no wall

Could hold our dreams.  We defied gravity.  There was no room

For doubt.  We rapped at every door

Gazed out through every window

And laughed at those who would not put themselves in to the light.

 

Careless, scornful, open days.  We wore other people light

As feathers round our necks.  We climbed the stairs

To reach the top, not to escape what lies below and peers in at the window

Of our fears.  Now we build our wall

Against them, lock the door

Of our regrets and grip our covers in the whispering darkness of our room.

 

Outside the children wait.  Their hope and doubt can have no room

In our house of certainties.  Naiveté shines a light

We cannot bear.  Experience-hungry hands claw at our door,

Voices croon along our stairs,

A sibilation cracks our wall.

‘Help us build the time that you once had.  Unlock your window.

 

‘You know us.  It is our breeze that whispers through your window,

Through your locks.  It breathes in the dry corners of your room

And prises at the ever crumbling cracks along your wall.

We offer you a light

To see your way downstairs.

Hear your locks rattle and bend.  We are here.  Open your door.’

 

The curtain flickers at the window, but there is no light

To draw their eyes up to our room.  No-one dances on our stairs.

No whisper cracks our wall.  In the dark the locks keep silent vigil on our door.