David A. Bart - poems
  • Intro
  • Home
  • Kingdom Come
  • Tunnel of Love
  • Exit Now
  • The Passion
  • Texas Education
  • Dumb Supper
  • Good Year
  • Toys
  • Saint Michael and the Devil
  • Invisible Knights
  • The Rain Gauge
  • Ponder
  • Remainder
  • Green Ghost
  • December 13th
  • Dedication
  • Prevailing Wind
  • Dreamland 1911
  • 10
  • On the Median
  • These Things Happen
  • White Water
  • The October People
  • Scene from a Moral Panic
  • Estrellita
  • Another Ending
  • What We're Dealing With
  • How Did the Foxes Die?
  • There was a Man
  • Bio. and credits

The October People

My misshapen folk
are gathered on the porch
a week before Halloween,
bound in Salvation Army
clothes, torsos spilling
newsprint. Propped up
on lawn chairs, gestures
lame but lifelike.
Kite stick bones,
raffia hair, wig stands
tilted so their empty eye
sockets can look after you.

Passing school kids dislike
the attention. They rush past
with eyes diverted
or go the long way around.
Others linger and watch,
walking closer each day,
waiting for a still life
to make its move.

In November, children
still slow and stare
when they pass my house,
as if it's still that month
when straw and burlap
people posed a threat.
When the walk home
was laced with frosted
orange light and the last
October day was hallowed.

I-70 Review, Spring / Summer 2018


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