LAST DAY of the DRAGONS

"Dragons live  in the mountains.  We cannot see them, but they are there.." -R. Raphe

It came without warning. They bellowed into the mist.  Their calls   felling the trees as they lumbered forth.

She heard them. Heard the dragons in the forest.

The dragons   wallowed in the mold and mud.

October was ending.

The dragons cried 

Clouds gathered on the mountains with shawls  of dust.

The waning sun burned hot in those dark days

And the dragons  roared to the fog.

The dragons breathed froth and howled at the dimming light.

And the mountains shuddered on the last day, when the rain came and went and went and came.

For there were many of them. Ancient  ones

They waited in the rain, which came and went and went and came…..

 It had been a long time since they needed rest.

To put out their fire. With the rain so cold and biting.

The dragons were weary. The fog  let them into the hills. 

Into the mountains. Into their lairs for winter.

On that last day of October. That last day of the dragons.

 Photographs 2022

"THEM BONES"

"Every once in a while you've got to open up the closet and let them skeletons breathe. Dust them off..." -Tyler Perry

Mr. ElridgeThomas lived across the lane. In a gingerbread house made of sugar and cookies. At least , that's what I had been told when I was five. It looked more like stucco and quartz.

 I would stare at his house and wonder if anyone had tried to eat it. I know I thought about it often. Mr. Eldrige Thomas was a drama teacher at the local high school. In stories there was always a witch with a gingerbread house.....

The two weeks coming up to Halloween meant Mr. Thomas would bring out a white picket fence and stake it into the ground all around his house.  He  stapled skeletons to the fence. Not the paper kind. The bony fake ones. Ones that rattled.  He had oodles of them. He hung them up everywhere. On the doorway he hung white cobwebs and big black spiders with vampire fangs.

I liked staring at the spiders..Every time Mr. Eldrige Thomas saw me watching him  he would go "Boo", and I'd run back to my house. 

Mr. Thomas laughed and laughed. Eventually I popped back out, to watch him  complete his haunted house. The spiders twirled in the wind. 

My mother said that Mr.  Thomas collected skeletons  from his class. I wondered how they got the skeletons. Grave robbers, said my dad. 

At night, in my room, with the wind whipping around outside, I could hear those skeletons rattling and battling around.  I figured they were coming to get me, and hide in MY closet.

I figured I should do something about it.

On Halloween afternoon I dressed up in one of my favourite costumes. A cape over large blue shorts and a t shirt with the letter "S" sewn on it. I was Supergirl. (It was a stretch, yes, I admit it. )

I also had a cheap plastic sword with the end cut off. My fav thing in the entire world.  I was ready to do battle with "them bones" ( like my Father called them), across the lane. So I carefully snuck out the back door, while my parents were doing laundry, and made my way  across the lane.....Of course, I wasn't that brave. It was still daylight.....not quite trick or treat time. And I didn't want to be caught with the vampire spiders after dark.

"Them bones" rattled  fiercely against the fence. My teeth  chattered. The wind  bitter. The cobwebs shivered above me. I was here to save the world, though.

On guard, Bones!  I flailed at the skeletons as they  bounced against the fence. The sky darkened and lightning popped across the clouds.

I fought valiantly. The skeletons  fell over with the little picket fence attached to them. Right up to the front door I made it.  My sword tore and  raked through my foes.  I got tangled in cobwebs and a large fake spider plopped down on top of my head. I screamed.The door opened......

Mr.  Eldrige Thomas stood there. Clown makeup all over his face. Sad painted smile . He frowned. 

A  big bag of Halloween candy in his hand.  I waved hi with  my sword. "Trick or treat", was all I managed to say.

He looked at what I'd done. I think he tried not to laugh. He offered me a bag of popcorn. that was the going thing. Popcorn bags, molasses candy and gum. Then helped me get untangled from the cobwebs. 

Mr. Eldrige Thomas took me back over to my house. Cobwebs stuck to my sword. He scared my mother and father with his clown costume. But he still got invited in for a quick cup of tea. The sky lightened. Storm averted.World saved.

Mr. Eldrige Thomas gave me one of the the big vampire spiders to hang over our porch. My mother kept staring at its fangs. My father helped  put back the fallen decorations. The Skeletons   clung to the fence once again.

And my sword was taken away from me,  ( like that stopped me in the future) and I was banned from ever going near "them bones" again............

"Skeletons rattled in your heart and you couldn't escape them.." 

                                        -Susie Clevenger

Photographs 2021

 

WITH DARKENED STARS....(Halloween 2019)

 With darkened stars on holy ground.

You call to me, O *Samhain sky. (gaelic:*Sow in)

 The day wearies and rots.

Seasons swift to change.

 Souls torn. Your day shall come at dawn.

On this last night. This last journey to earth.

 With darkened stars on holy ground.

Souls that live. Pray for these  dead.

 Sliver glass as   snow.

Fingers reaching.

 Grasping at loam.

With darkened stars, on holy ground.

 Footsteps scrape.

Red  moon deities   circle like ravens.

 Light the bonfires.

This All saints Eve.

 All has passed two thousand years.

Footsteps clamber. Ever closer. Ever more.

 For those who lived, for those who died

 End of summer waning.

Harvest gone. 

 Dark winter comes.

The year anew,  begins .

 The day wearies and rots.

Footsteps pounding. 

 This night of Samhain reels.

Dead return to earth.

 Footsteps scrape.

Blurring worlds between..

 On this hallowed ground.

 Take fire , sacred Samhain ash.

 The holy day is upon us.With darkened stars on holy ground.

 INFO: SAHMAIN was the Gaelic celebration for the end of the harvest year.  (About 2000 years ago. ) It's from this that we get Halloween. There were no devils, or black cats or witches. The townspeople would gather together and dress in animal hides and have a bonfire  before the season changed yet again. . It also signified the honouring of the dead who had gone before. It was believed  souls rose to walk the earth to make mischief, before returning to their graves. The next day became known as All Saints' Day. The next day the people would gather fire from the bonfire ashes to light their own fires. And the year would start again. 

Photographs 2019  BOOOOOOOOOO.......