Costumed marauders prowl dark Autumnal streets with buckets and parents. Witches, zombies and ghosts, I get. Superheroes don’t fit with pagan. Candlelit, ragged smile, solitary watcher. Me, not the pumpkin. Brown horse chestnut fruit: “Conkers” as we Brits call them. These not for eating. Candy treat will rot your teeth. And maybe eyes, too – like Jack O’ Lantern. I turn off my light, ignore inquisitive knocks. It’s better that way. Halloween: Safe thrills. Older teens sneak drink and pills. Corpse stays in grave, still.
About the Author Allen Ashley is an award-winning writer, editor and tutor based in London, UK. His work has recently appeared at “The World of Myth”, “Green Ink Poetry” and “Sein und Werden”. His chapbook “Journey to the Centre of the Onion” has just been published in hardback and paperback by Eibonvale Press (UK). Allen is the founder of the advanced SF F group Clockhouse London Writers. About the Artist Yasmine Essence Soria is a photographer, writer and editor based in Chicago, where she was born and raised. She is a first-generation Mexican-Honduran-American woman working to pave her own path in the world through her work. She currently attends Columbia College Chicago in pursuit of a Bachelor’s in creative writing with a minor in photography. As a multimedia creator, she creates both photo and writing work that expresses the core aspects of her identity, while describing the world as she perceives it. She works largely in digital and partly in film, favoring still life and portraiture. For more of her photo work, follow her Instagram @yasmine.essence.
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