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Wednesday 31 October 2012

When the bones rose up...

From grave to grave the ringtones rang,
the bones as one, sat up and sang.
With times and venues quickly fixed,
the paint put on in blobs and licks,
the chains unrolled for one more year
and rattled for a night of fear,
bones salivated at the thought
of what they'd do to those they caught.

Returning calls, the plans were laid,
more paint applied - but this time sprayed.
Werewolves and ghouls were asked to meet
with witches who'd an extra teat
and bats who'd flown that day from hell
and corpses still with dead man's smell
and photographs of targets sent
on Blackberries and i-pads, meant
their fates were sealed with mal-intent
to post them on the internet.

That's when the sky went black as jet...
a thousand brooms were sweeping by --
two thousand evil, bloodshot eyes
to curdle blood, turn men to flies
or leave them with deep mental scars.
The i-pads on their handlebars
now blazed with light and -- fright on fright --
arising from the blazing light
and soaring skywards from each screen
came zombies every shade of green, 
vampires, phantoms, wraithes and ghosts,
demons, devils, hell's worst hosts
with brands to burn the stars on high
and mummies that refused to die,
all spreading out across the town,
infernally  to track men down
and sacrifice them in the name
of all that speaks of death and shame.

And last of all, from broken graves
came ghosts of those still living, slaves
of death who'd come to find
their other selves, though lame and blind.
Should these two creatures ever meet,
flesh to soul or tweet to tweet,
and if these two should ever meld --
a meeting quite unparallelled --
if into spirit blood should flow
(or vice versa spirit go)
this world (and more than this, the other one)
will be as though they'd not begun.
They both will go into decline
and every force there be malign.
The world will end --
be sure, my friend --
not with a bang,
not with a rhythm
not with rhyme,
and definitely not on time,
not even with the merest whimper... 
think instead: a low,
and infinitely slow...
phut!
fizzle!
Dang!

I have linked this poem to dVerse Poet's Pub Open Link Night Trick or Treat hosted by Tashtoo

18 comments:

Elephant's Child said...

Brilliant. An All Hallows Eve poem for our times. And no less frightening for that. Thanks Dave.

Ygraine said...

I love how the rhythm leads us into this infernal realm of the undead.
The perfect rendition of twenty-first century Hallowe'en.
Really enjoyed this.

Mary said...

Ha, ha, Dave. Actually a wonderful Halloween write; and rhymed yet! I do think you may be right on how the world will end. Phut! fizzle.

Brian Miller said...

ha....big smiles....phut fizzle....lol....yep i think you might just be right...this was a lot of fun man, happy halloween, hope any littles that visit you are nice...smiles.

Daydreamertoo said...

Shivers..... LOL
Very effective sing song rhyme which kept me enthralled to the last chilling line!
Great poem Dave. Two thousand blood shot eyes.... Spooky .....

Laurie Kolp said...

Scary! I love the rhythm and rhyme here as it adds to the suspense.

Claudia said...

ha i like...great flow to this...and cool how you mix halloween with our modern world of tweets and i pods..smiles

Raven said...

This is a totally cool poem that had me smiling and laughing the whole way through. Loved the picture that you painted. Up on those handlebars. Really neat!

Tommaso Gervasutti said...

great celebration and again a splendid sequence of rhymes, thank you.

hedgewitch said...

What a flood of amazing detail--all very tongue in cheek, but effective, too. There's a lot about meeting tweet to tweet that can scare a person. ;_)

Anonymous said...

Ha - very clever. Your rhyme and meter are pitch perfect, and you've definitely put your own fillip on these I-pocalyptic matters!

A lot of well-done fun, thanks!

(I can use cheering up!) k.

Jennifer Wagner said...

You put so much into this! I think you covered Halloween from head to toe--well done!

Cloudia said...

How are you so well productive??!!

Most enjoyable, yet the farthest thing from mental junk-food.

Nice treat, you trickster


Aloha from Waikiki, my Friend
Comfort Spiral

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Anonymous said...

An awesome modern take on Halloween. (It might just be that I associate Halloween with the great Ray Bradbury but your poem seemed like something he would heartily approve.) I did wonder if "witches who'd an extra teat" was supposed to be "an extra treat", but it definitely works either way. Love this! :)

Rosemary Nissen-Wade said...

A sizzling read, great fun! And I do admire your way with rhyme.

Sabio Lantz said...

I liked the spooky halloween stuff in the first stanzas -- fun ghoulishness. Very cool writing.

Then the last stanza seemed to say some message about the living and the dead meeting and the end of the world -- or something. I couldn't follow that.
Wish I could -- seemed like a statement was made that I missed.
Why will the world fizzle and not explode?

A Cuban In London said...

Great! Especially the ending. I loved the poem's downward spiral, like a witch nosediving to the ground. :-)

Greetings from London.

Dave King said...

Hi Everyone
Hope you all had a (slightly) scary Halloween.
Grateful thanks to you all for your kind words and the trouble taken to write them.
Also for your many responses. Interesting to discover how many thought the world might end with a phut and a fizzle.
A special Hello and thanks to Raven, Wordcoaster and Rosemary. Really good to have you visiting.
I am hoping to provide a normal service tomorrow, but at the moment it is not guaranteed.
Thanks again.