I remember last October when I was down and seldom sober

And couldn’t think of sinking lower, I heard a knocking at my door.

I disentangled from my bedding and toward the front door started treading,

Surmising whom I’d soon be dreading. What would this visit hold in store?

Was this the ghost I’d waited for or just the wind and nothing more.

Or could it be a bill collector or just a Jehovah’s Witness rector?

But then I saw the corpselike specter, cloaked in black outside my door.

And as I stood aghast and peering with my composure disappearing,

I saw the sight I’d long been fearing, the shadow of a scythe upon the floor.

Before my eyes, the door crept open, and in the night, a loud commotion

Drew me to the spectral motion of four more monsters at my door.

And then all five made this pronouncement, the standard Halloween announcement,

Trick or treat and nothing more.

And in a stupor laced with Brandy, I realized I had no candy,

And I could find no words to bandy with these tricksters at my door.

In my mind, I saw soaped windows, rotten eggs, and pink flamingoes,

As two more ghouls lurched from the shadows and joined the others at my door.

Yes, I remember last October, and now another year is over,

And I have candy for each ogre, who comes rapping at my door,

Shouting trick or treat and nothing more…