TRICK OR TREAT?
“Good Christians” warn that Halloween’s
A festival of Satan,
When nothing’s standing in between
Your soul and its damnation.
For centuries, they witches burned
With little provocation.
Eternal fire claimed they’d earned.
For mercy — strangulation!
The Inquisition paid you well
For friend’s denunciation,
Provided friend was rich as hell
For Church’s confiscation.
The “Day of Saints” to honor dead
Was Christian celebration,
Till Celtic lore imposed instead
Autumnal connotation.
Samhain* their harvest holiday
Ere winter’s hibernation,
When eating, drinking, sped the way
Of spirits to salvation.
Both ghosts and goblins walked the earth
In Celts’ imagination.
But Church saw little room for mirth
In such abomination.
Samhain became “All Hallow’s Eve,”
A night in preparation
For praising saints, which they believed
Would minimize temptation.
But medieval Church obsessed
With total domination
Of Europe, therefore, had to wrest
Control of cerebration.
So demons lurking everywhere,
Their clever postulation,
With witches flying through the air
And cloven fornication.
On Halloween, they focused all
Their hate and trepidation.
Condemned it as a hellish ball
Of evil’s culmination.
Removed they “undesirables”
By faulty accusation,
Preserving “Christian principles”
‘Mid purging conflagration.
At last, in eighteenth century
Such nonsense met cessation
When rational humanity
Developed toleration.
Now Fundamentalists dismiss
A child’s anticipation
Of Halloween by calling this
“Satanic recreation.”
Like Torquemadas vivified,
They thrive on condemnation
Of challenge to their narrow lives
Of mental constipation.
So on October 31st,
Keep kids in isolation,
Lest pumpkin carved or mummy cursed
Be devil’s invitation.
____________________
* Pronounced “sow-in”
(published in BIBLIOPHILOS, Fall 2000, pp. 38-40; MÖBIUS, Fall-Winter 2000, p. 7; DANA LITERARY SOCIETY ONLINE JOURNAL, October 2003; FULLOSIA PRESS ONLINE, March 2011)
Author Bio:
I am a Professional Engineer who has been writing poetry since 1990. I am an incorrigible rhymer, tending toward the skeptical/cynical regarding daily life. I have been fortunate to have been published in poetry magazines and on-line journals such as NUTHOUSE, MOTHER EARTH INTERNATIONAL, FEELINGS/POETS’ PAPER, MÖBIUS (when Jean Hull Herman published), PABLO LENNIS, MUSE OF FIRE, SO YOUNG!, THE AARDVARK ADVENTURER, POETIC LICENSE, THUMBPRINTS, UNLIKELY STORIES, BIBLIOPHILOS, FULLOSIA PRESS, NOMAD’S CHOIR, HIDDEN OAK, PABLO LENNIS, POETSESPRESSO, SOUL FOUNTAIN, WRITER’S JOURNAL, ATLANTIC PACIFIC PRESS, DERONDA REVIEW, LYRIC, THE STORYTELLER, WRITE ON! and DANA LITERARY SOCIETY.