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They worked right up till the grey edge
of dark, then walked up from the fields
on the near side of night, as bats began
to dart and weave replacing the swallows
of dusk that were replaced in their turn,
at first by single stars, then a galaxy
of lights and a hit or miss moon that
tried to hide behind clouds that streaked –
wispy streamers, thin tendrils of darkened
shadow that disguised our way, confused
our steps and caused us to stumble and trip
now and again, leaving us kids to flounder
and Pop saying, “Lift your feet higher and
take smaller steps; shorten your stride,
you’ll do just fine. We’ll be past the ghosts
and goblins and most of the witches once we
make it up the hill and to the other side
and into the gleam of the front porch light…”
Then, with our very next and cautious step
came both his and Uncle George’s shouting,
“Run, here comes one now!” and their making
my feet fly and our thin voices shriek shrill
as Bill and I raced and fell, then got up
and ran like hell some more, barely ahead
of their riotous laughter that, at the time,
sounded so much like ugly things with wings
and talons that could carry us off before we
made it to the light and the breathless safety
of its dull glow that hardly cut the night.
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Ronald Russis's most recent success was selection as the Virginia Writers
Club’s statewide first place 2007 finish for his selection “Two Views (for Peter R.)”, for
which Claudia Emerson, last year’s Pulitzer Prize poetry winner for her book Late Wife,
was the judge.
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