These two days after doorbell dole,

Still sweets the colors of all souls —

Red and yellow, black and white —

Ghouls yet at half-mast, sugar height.

What aftermath of prank complaints!

Chocolate’s spoiled feast of all saints—

Wine in goblet, host on dish

By uncut loaves and slack-eyed fish.

That even the pitched wind breathed: “Ah When…!”

The guisers ushered on Samhain;

So daytimed-out, death darkened piles

Turned beacons stretching day for miles.

[Uche Ogbuji (@uogbuji) was born in Calabar, Nigeria. He lived, among other places, in Egypt and England before settling near Boulder, Colorado. A computer engineer and entrepreneur by trade, his collection of poetry, Ndewo, Colorado was published by Aldrich press in 2013. His poems, fusing Igbo culture, European Classicism, U.S. Mountain West setting, and Hip-Hop influences, have appeared worldwide, most recently in String Poet, Featherlit, Qarrtsiluni, Leveler, Atavic, Shot Glass and Stonecoast Review. He is editor at Kin Poetry Journal and The Nervous breakdown, founder and curator at the @ColoradoPoetry Twitter project. He is also a founding member of the Stanza Massive, a small, DIY-minded group promoting members’ books of poetry, including through collaborative, multimedia experiments with their texts.]