It’s Friday! And you know what that means: Poetry! Want to know more about Poetry Friday? Click this link right here. And be sure to check out Trish’s blog, The Miss Rumphius Effect, to see this week’s round up of wonderful poetry related posts, blogs and goodness. 

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Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Thanks for stopping by. A few weeks ago, I announced that I was going to try to finish my Poemtober poetry list from last year before October gets here. I managed to get 7 more (1st draft) poems completed along with my silly watercolors. For those of you who haven’t seen my amazing painting abilities, you are in for a treat. Ha! I do so have fun playing around though and it is one of the few things that I just let be without feeling overly bad about being kind of bad at it.

I got the idea for this first one from one of the ghosts from a famous movie. Can you guess which one?

Vacancy
Hello! I’m here to audition
For the advertised position.
(Please excuse my condition–
It’s beyond my manipulation)
I know my pale presentation
May cause some minor vexation
But I assure you, my cheery disposition
Will exceed your workplace qualifications
Will you accept my application?
I do not seek compensation
Just merely to follow my ambition
To become a library apparition
© Becky Herzog, 2021

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I definitely got a bit of help from Charlie Brown on this one. It got me thinking of the little red-headed girl that he had a crush on, but what if the little girl was someone a little more spooky?

Medusa
You sat in front of me
Your shimmering locks of hair
Brushing my desk
I wanted to talk to you
But your gaze
Has me petrified
© Becky Herzog, 2021

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I liked this one enough that I think I will work on better drafts down the road. I’m a little miffed that that I was too lazy to check which monster I had playing which guitar and got it backwards in the drawing. Ah well.

Thanks for coming to our gig
We play each Halloween

Let me introduce the band
The greatest you’ve ever seen

Bodak plays the lead guitar
Zombie’s on the bass

Skeleton is on the drums
She keeps a steady pace

And I sing all the vocals
They call me the Banshee

We’re glad you all could join us
For our bit of revelry

We spend all year rehearsing
So please don’t go all pale

If walking by the graveyard
You hear our grooving wail.

And now I’ll share a little tip
Before we play our closing:

No better time to write new songs
Than when you’re decomposing
© Becky Herzog, 2021

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I wall off the world
Brick by brick
My private
Secret
Crypt
© Becky Herzog, 2021

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Deep in the woods overgrown
Lives a woman all hunched and alone
The kids at my school
Can really be cruel
They call her a crazy old crone

On weekends I pack up my pram
With carrots and apples and jam
I don my red veil
And stay on the trail
On the way to visit my Gram

I tell her how mean the kids seem
And I see in Gram’s eyes there’s a gleam
She mixes a brew
That’s sticky and blue
Then explains her maniacal scheme

I sprinkled the brew on their meal
And though the kids all tried to squeal
Their mouths were glued shut
And, you know what?
The silence has so much appeal.
© Becky Herzog, 2021

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Her cackle echoes
Like the crackle-boom
Of wild weather
A silhouette on a full moon
Midnight bat-signal
Summoning
Creatures of the dark
The witching hour
Has arrived
© Becky Herzog, 2021

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Just 9 more poems to write! My goal is to have 7 more for next Friday and then the final 2 on the 24th, along with my 2021 Poemtober list reveal.

I would love to incorporate some of your spooky word suggestions! Leave them in the comments and I’ll see if I can add some of them to my 2021 list!