A Halloween prank two boys planned

Was on  a gentle boy named Stan

For Stan was studious and slight

Never would Stan engage in fight



The two boys told Stan they would pay

Him to perform an act and stay

One night inside a haunted shack

To pound into the floor a tack



Stan wanted to prove he was tough

He took the dare and sure enough

The hammer and the tack for sure

At midnight to  pound in the floor



'Twas Halloween the full moon shone

Stan went inside the shack alone

The clock struck twelve the two boys grinned

Believing Stan would never win



Well sure enough there came the sound

Of a tack being given pound

Three times they heard the hammer fall

Then silence nothing else at all



The next day came still silence loomed

Within the shack which had been doomed

They waited for Stan to come out

Ent'ring the shack they looked about



What they beheld next made them gasp

Stan lying dead hammer in grasp

The gentle boy whom at his chore

Had nailed his shirt tail to the floor



The coroner had said Stan's heart

Must have experienced a start

His face was frozen in a scream

As if he'd had an awful dream



It seemed like he had tried to run

His leg outstretched his shirt undone

Was to the floor nailed held him there

That must have caused him quite a scare



Two boys went missing on that day

Some people said they'd run away

Other folks say that they went mad

Chased by a hammer wielding lad







Jane Noponen Perinacci