Annual Halloween Poem

A Horribly Horsy Halloween
by Julia Wolffe 1998



I heard it through my bedroom window, thunder in the night,
It was 10pm on Halloween and gave me such a fright!
First very faint, then louder, louder to a deafening roar,
Then just as quickly, it was quiet and I heard no more.
I lied there silent in my bed, straining to hear a sound,
I fretted an hour, tossed and turned, watched the clock go round.
Then I thought I might have heard it, the tap of hoof to earth,
Should I go to the window? What was knowing worth?
I waited longer, sure I heard a bump here and there.
The window curtain slightly lifted from the cold night air.
And then the noise that beckoned me, a nicker deep and low,
It had to be horses in the dark, summoning me to go.
Oh so quiet, there I walked, to the window sill,
I focused my eyes to the black and stood very still.
Jet black horses, there they waited, for me to get out of bed.
Long curly manes, hooves like knives, eyes of dark, blood red.
I never hesitated but out I ran, barefoot and alone,
The horses turned and gazed at me, eyes as dead as stone.
And in an instant they spun around and disappeared in the gloom.
I stood bewildered in the light that drifted from my room.
I was afraid but could not go in so I sat down in the grass.
Listening and shivering in the cold, I watched the moon drift pass.
I fell asleep and in my dreams I saw them once again.
Dark black horses with blood red eyes, haters of all men.
And in my dreams I could not tame them no matter how I tried,
I followed them with a wishful heart until it broke and I died.
It was still dark when I awoke and it took a moment to see,
That the black horses with blood red eyes stared down at me.
I jumped to my feet and tried to scream, remembering the dream before,
But instead the noise that I made was a stallion’s roar!
Gone were the tethers of my human body, I galloped to join the herd.
I bucked and reared and leapt around with the freedom of a bird.
I never looked back as we raced away and I never was again seen.
I live with the black horses with the blood red eyes who came on Halloween.