CHILDHOOD HAUNTS
A COLLECTION OF SCARY POEMS AND SHORT STORIES TO RAISE YOUR HACKLES
By
Brian Montgomery
© 2009
Sketch work by Edward Malone
Published by Brian Montgomery at Smashwords
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‘Twas the Night Before Halloween
(‘Twas the Night Before Christmas)
‘Twas the night of the haunting,
When all through the tomb,
Not a creature was sleeping, no need to exhume.
The skeletons were hung in effigy with care,
In hopes that the evil one soon would be there.
The corpses were buried and all well behaved,
While dozens of goblins danced on their graves.
And Mummy in her wrap, and I in my cape,
Had just watched the Moon rise through our drape.
When out in the crypt there arose such a howl,
I sprang from my vault and went on the prowl.
Away to the window I flew like a bat,
And saw nothing there but my favorite Black Cat.
The Moon glowed orange and the wind blew hard,
As a coven of witches shrieked through my yard.
When, out in the boneyard what should appear,
But a chariot of fire, and a dead charioteer,
With a vile and bony red skinned old elf,
I knew in a moment it was Satan himself.
More toxic than poison his demons they came,
And he hollered, and hailed, and evoked them by name:
“Now, Sickness! Now, Hatred! Now, Venom and Grief!
On, Liar! On, Monster! On, Killer and Thief!
From the bottom of Hell! To this haunted home!
Now, slash away! Slash away! Slash ‘til you’re done!”
As dead trees howl loud in the wind,
They banged on my door and begged to come in,
So up to my roof they all did float,
With Darkness himself in his fire red coat.
And then like a curse, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of two goaty hoofs.
As I stared toward the ceiling, to follow the sound,
Down the chimney came King Underground.
His skin was shiny, from his hoof to his head,
And the color of that - hellfire red.
A cluster of evil he had flung on his back,
The wholly unholy pyromaniac.
His eyes how they blazed! His face how horrid!
His cheeks how rosy but much less florid.
His pockmarked mouth was drawn up in a sneer,
And his ragged beard moved me to fear.