Halloween decorations around my neighbourhood is east end Toronto – some just for fun, some serious statements.
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Halloween 2022
Heretical Front Yards
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Tag: Halloween
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Pumpkins
Inflatables have taken over Halloween. These are all in my east-end Toronto neighbourhood.
Halloween 2022
sweet, eh? paypal.me/TOpoet
Halloween 2022
Walking the side streets in east end Toronto I see that Halloween decor is getting as popular as Christmas decorating. Houses with strings or orange lights, some with illuminated spiders, ghosts or skulls , plus the growing variations of inflatables. Giant grinning cats with heads that rotate back-and-forth. Shelves of candy – now mostly little chocolate bars – at Shoppers, WalMart & supermarkets.
As a youngster in Sydney, Cape Breton the only decoration one might see was carved pumpkins with candles inside. We used pillowcases to go door-to-door for trick-or-treating. The candy was usually those toffy/taffy kisses, apples or oranges, & if you were lucky small bags of chips. Sometimes a small bag of unshelled peanuts. Those little chocolate bars hadn’t been invented then lol. Now one has to provide bars that have no nuts! I guess soon we’ll have to find some sort of sugar-free chocolate bar too, or ones with no trans fats. Sorry, but I’ll leave the sorting of treats to parents.
Store bought costumes – cowboys, pirates etc. Or something homemade – old sheets reprised as ghosts, your Dad’s oversized sports coat sort of things. Rarely a superhero & nothing that lit up with led’s. Costumes to school if Halloween fell on a school night. It was an innocent time. At that age I had no awareness of the pagan roots of event. I later discovered it was one of the few ‘old religion’ holidays that the Church couldn’t erase turn into their own – they did try with All Saints Day but well, we don’t see illuminated Saints on peoples front lawns. A giant inflatable St. Teresa hovering in the air would be fun though.
In the past decade, here in Toronto, the decorating for the event has gotten bigger & more macabre – severed hands, feet, heads suspended from trees, skeletons hanging on front porches, zombi arms digging themselves out of the ground. Bats, spiders, plastic skeletons of dogs, owls, dinosaurs even spiders (which have no skeletons). It is easy to guess which house has children by the number of doll limbs dangling in the trees.
Halloween 2021:
when it goes on sale November 1 🙂 paypal.me/TOpoet
Spiders and Their Fiends
Just A Sip
Just A Sip
how kind
a cup of blood for me
fresh
warm to the touch
I can’t thank you enough
has it been checked
I mean I don’t want to sound
ungrateful
but even the starving
have to show some caution
these days
<>
I once
broke out in hives
from contaminated blood
things like that happen
when you are starving
you lose all sense of caution
of self-preservation
in my younger days
I could smell the blood
& tell how pure it was
<>
now all it smells of is
drink me
Blowing Up Halloween
Remains
Remains
months later
the body hasn’t been found
snow
flies
dances around a backyard
ground frozen hard
shock dissipated somewhat
we know all the details
we’ve been allowed to know
how they met, why,
the history of both men
the deceased and the accused
made manifest
all that’s missing is the corpse
<>
bleached bare bones
found years from now
when everything is forgotten
his name
the innocent till proven guilty
my name
I’m not naming names
don’t want anyone remembered
for how they died
his life is more than that
<>
his life has to be more
than a cold case years from now
more than a denial from the accused
more than just another queer
who go what he deserved
<>
years later
and the body hasn’t been found
the estate can’t be settled
some people still can’t sleep
don’t feel completion
whatever the fuck that is
I don’t want completion
revenge or justice
I want this
to never have happened
<>
I want to forget
where the remains
can be found
Bones and Body Parts
Festive decor from around the east end of Toronto as folks get into the swing of Halloween. It rivals Christmas as we celebrate our old region past
Sign of the Beast
Sign of the Beast
I wondered
is it a neon sign
something hand-painted
sprayed on a subway car
does it swing on a board
over the door of a pub
or at a street corner
like a stop sign
<>
will I see it
at the bottom of a contract
does it come between
aries & scorpio
a wave of the hand
to say
here I am
I’ve saved a seat for you
is it an early warning for cancer
<>
I don’t think I’ve seen it yet
they say you’ll know it
when you see it
there’ll be no question in your mind
you can’t ignore it
when you see it
it’s too late
to do anything about it
<>
no matter what you do
to avoid it
you will see it
I Don’t Know Him
I Don’t Know Him
he was sure
we had met before
he knew my name
where I lived
what I had for breakfast
<>
I was sure he was mistaken
the name he called me
wasn’t mine
I never lived at that address
I skipped breakfast
<>
he was puzzled
he wants to know
why I pretend not to know him
he wants proof
of not being who
he is sure I am
<>
I walk away
I’m not showing some stranger
anything
that would identify me
he’s not getting a glimpse
of my credit cards
my health card
I’m not even going to tell him
where I live
where I’m going
<>
now he wants to know
what I’m hiding
what am I afraid of
he said I was never this paranoid
that I need help
people are gawking at us
<>
I control my anger
I don’t want his blood on my hands
but I want him
to shut the fuck up
to get out of my space
leave me alone
<>
I don’t know him
I don’t want to know him
I want to call the police
but what will I tell them
how long will I have to wait
<>
I stop answering his questions
I walk as fast as I can
dash across a street
just as the lights change
he’s right behind me
<>
car wheels screech
thud
thunk
I keep going
he’s not behind me
I won’t turn back
I don’t know him
TOpoet 