DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC?

HALLOWEEN, 2022

 

The big buzz, early

Neighborhood kids, the littlest ones, parents in tow

Seem to know

It's special

Costumes 

Treats

And adult reactions 

 

Fun

Serious fun

 

We don’t neighbor enough  

Sure, their lives, busy  

But now at my front door

 

Night of opportunity

Encourage the magic 

Kids visiting a different world

Ask each one about theirs

Stretched kids' imaginations

            When did I stop exercising mine?

 

All Hallows Eve, thanks for the opportunity

Lighting pumpkins

Lighting anything, doing whatever

To add some magic

 

Eventually, too dark

Even for spooks

 

Look, leftovers

A Kit Kat bar, a Rice Krispies treat

Skittles and chocolate covered mints

 

Damn, it was fun

 

October 31

DRK

  HALLOWEEN, 2015

In two hours the magic disappears
Final chance, kids -- decide and make it good
How best to treat the ‘hood
Six to eight p.m. — until next year

Two hours of
Mom and dad, toddlers in tow
Not sure who
But recognize candy being shared

Grade-schoolers on their own
Kid time, peak time
Imagine that!  Imagine this!
It doesn’t get any better than
Bats!  And mischief!

Older ‘tweens chauffeured in, on the make
Know precisely why and how
A science to them
Reports will follow

Two hours and Halloween’s oddities
. . . In the way
But the holiday season is still young

Anticipating turkey fun

Boo!  Y’hear?

DRK
11/3/19

  HOMECOMINGS
AND GOINGS

    “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
    And sorry I could not travel both
    And be one traveler, long I stood
    And looked down one as far as I could
    To where it bent in the undergrowth;

    Then took the other, .  . . ,”

        Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken

A class reunion brought us home
From our many roads
Seven decades after we began
To work our way
Through schools

Toward what we would become

I witnessed those roads converge
Across a cocktail aisle
And could not suppress the urge to smile

    Gracious hospitality
   Friendships refreshed
   Noisy stories voiced and heard
   A few beers shared
   The weather, perfectly clear 
   Plenty of sun

And a candle was lighted
For those whose courses had been run

We remembered the teachers

Who taught us skills

Today, looking back, those skills
Tidy and useful though they became
Have largely done with me

It’s questions now that freshen me
Urge me to look ahead, not back
For the new, the next
Not the past



Eventually, weekend done 
Our internal officers sorted through 
Our happy traffic jam
And sent us on our way 
Back down our roads again 

Mine, dimly lit, suggest to me
There still may be
Something new to see


God’s prod -- past seventy -- to seek maturity

May you enjoy good health and well-lit roads
I remain grateful that my way
Has always been and will continue to be enriched by yours


To the FHS class of 1955
Dennis Keefe
November 21, 2015