Halloween is the day

Of hallowed hormesis

The day we wear Evil,

As decorated darkness,

As domesticated subconscious,

As fear fathomed

Into flesh.

The day we pretend

That we have fixed

Mankind’s broken back,

And can accept the stranger

As our friend, as ourselves.

Difference isn’t death.

No banning or building walls

On Halloween.

Before and after,

Monsters wear the masks of men

Are among us,

Have become us

Or are the strangers we love to fear.

But on Halloween

The monster’s mug isn’t Us

Nor is it Them,

It’s something we haven’t seen

By then.

A demon, a devious one

With a grin like the Pot of Greed

And menace written

In its DNA

Doing everyone dirty from the shadows

Cause that is what it does.

On Halloween, Evil is

Just another party-pooping pest,

Just another Satan in a Sunday hat,

Something we can cope with,

Something we can fix

Without fixing ourselves.