The skeletons untethered from their strings,
Are gathered up and swiftly packed away,
Become abeyant, harmless, lifeless things,
Possessed by neither terror nor dismay.
The witches rest. The lycanthropes transform,
Back into human shapes and slink away,
The undead flee from mundane, daily norms.
And ghosts retreat from coming light of day.
We say good-bye to all our giddy frights.
And put aside our silly childlike fears.
We shrink the shadow's stretch, we raise the lights,
And don the costumes we must wear all year.
