Nepsa Merge

Photography Winner

Poetry Winner

The souls of the dead rise this day 
To shake the earth and lead children astray. 
They watch in silence, watching behind 
The bushes, just to toy with your mind. 
Children giggle, running about, 
Collecting their candy in falls drought. 
Leaves are crisp from the suns bursting rays 
And demons and creatures haunting all the days. 
They dry up the ground, kill all the trees, 
And cause everything to start to freeze. 
This is the time, when the sun goes down, 
When witches and ghouls wander into town 
To steal your children, take their soul. 
Robbing you of your joy is their goal. 
They take you to their evil cave, 
Tie you up with no way to be saved. 
Cut off your skin, pluck out your eyes, 
Boil your brain and burn off your thighs. 
Eat out your spleen, gut out your liver, 
Things that would make the night sky shiver. 
They mush them together, slick and gooey, 
Into something much more chewy. 
They mold it and form it, smooth and sandy, 
And wrap it up to sell it as candy. 
Colorful wrappers are used for disguise 
When they go out to sell before sunrise 
(What's left of the children? No one knows. 
As Halloween continues, the mystery grows). 
Parents will be delirious, searching for kids, 
Searching until they have heavy eyelids. 
There are those demons and creatures and ghouls 
Selling their treats, laughing at the frantic fools. 
They won't find them: they are already gone 
With no evidence but "candy" on the lawn. 
The souls of the dead rise this night 
To steal children and cause great fright. 
Fright that stabs, fright that shakes, 
Fright that makes the core of earth quake. 
I tell this story as a warning to all; 
When, at night, you hear the owls call 
Guard yourself, stay near the light. 
Watch where you go in the dead of night.