Last Night, on Hallow’s Eve
I expected to see ghosts.
Last night at midnight
I went to the cemetery
expecting to see ghosts
moaning and writhing
in emotional distress.
I wanted to observe
the struggle they had
keeping at arm’s length
Azrael’s grasping hand
trying to despoil bodies
of the souls therein.
How riveting, I thought,
to hear the Angel of Death
reading the roll call
of those who were to perish
giving them cause to grieve
on a moonlit Hallow’s Eve.
But everything was quiet
among the marble graves
and that eerie silence
was more unnerving
than ghoulish apparitions.
I didn’t think I’d feel
a shiver down my spine
and, though all was fine,
I took to my heels
and quickly ran away.
© Luigi Pagano 2020
© ionicus 2023
Views: 547
Much enjoyed this spooky graveyard visit without the spooks 🙂
As someone once said if you were a ghost would you hang around a cold dark graveyard, or would you just go home. We lived with a ghost for thirteen years, nice woman a little mischievous, I missed her when we moved. sue.
Perhaps they were all tucked up in a warm crypt to keep the cold at bay.
Nice to hear from you, Daffni. It must be fifteen years since we met at the launch of my first poetry collection in Shotton. I wonder if you remember. Sorry to learn about your problem with the eyesight. I wish you well.
The tone of the poem had to be spooky, given the occasion.
Luigi x
The house where I lived as a child could only be accessed by a short path. On one side was the cemetery, on the other a large spooky house in its own grounds (later became an old peoples home) There were no street lights so I would run as fast as I could from one end to the other. Now I live next door to a converted chapel with cemetery and it doesn’t bother me at all. I do love your descriptions in this, the scary setup of what’s to come, only to find that that awful silence is worse… Read more »
It’s odd how the mind works, Gillian. In the dark the imagination runs wild and we see danger when there is none. Once we are familiar with particular surroundings we become more blasé and nothing fazes us anymore.
haha. Sounds like you did the right thing. Eerie silence in graveyards can be particularly menacing. I volunteer at Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh, one of the most haunted graveyards in the world.
I love it but it really is scary at night.
Alison x
Discretion is the better part of valour, as the saying goes.
Luigi x