American Life in Poetry 10/22/12

American Life in Poetry: Column 396
http://www.americanlifeinpoetry.org/columns/396.html
 
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

I’m not alone in noticing how time accelerates as we grow older, and as the seasons grow ever more brief the holidays are gone in a wink. This poem by Nancy Price about Halloween catches a little of that. She’s an Iowan whose poems are so heartfelt, clear and useful that we could run them every week and none of you would complain.



Trick or Treat

The ghost is a torn sheet,

the skeleton’s suit came from a rack in a store

the witch is flameproof, but who knows

what dark streets they have taken here?

Brother Death, here is a candy bar.

For the lady wearing the hat from Salem: gum.

And a penny for each eye, Lost Soul.

They fade away with their heavy sacks.

Thanks! I yell just in time.

                                             Thanks for another year!