thehighlanderspoems

Around the Fire they Danced

Driving down the highway
In the pitch black dead of night
The hairs on the back of my neck
Indications, not all is right

A long meandering bend
In the distance reveals a glow
Has captured my curiosity
My driving runs to slow

I pull in to the kerbside
Beside a country church
I make my way towards the glow 
In curiosity search

Up in the distance
I hear the sound of chanting
It has the feeling of evil
Dark, eerie and haunting

I reach a harvested clearing
Beside a tree I stand
The chanting is now a visual
Children in a circle stand

Standing in the middle
A figure is set ablaze
A wicker man type shape
As the fire with him plays

Once the chantings finished
The children start to dance
In hypnotic trancing fashion
They sing as they prance

 
    Ring a ring of pumpkins
    Theirs fire in his eyes
    Us children of the fields
    As we dance, the burning pumpkin cries

 
More and more they dance
As the flames climb his frame
The louder the children chant
Tells me, this is no game

As I slowly watch
The fires erupts through it's eyes
As if with a rush of oxygen
The last of all it's cries

When the fire deadens
The children turn and go
Every one a blond
Their eyes in yellow glow

Across the field they skip
Singing the same song
It's time for me to leave
For here I don't belong

 
    Ring a ring of pumpkins
    Theirs fire in his eyes
    Us children of the fields
    As we dance, the burning pumpkin cries


In nervous stealth like fashion
I head back to my car
My speed turns to fast
From that glow, I'll soon be far

The next day in the paper
And the headline on the news
In the town that I'd just driven through
A body in melted fuse

Every Halloween
A missing dispatch is sent
Am I the one who knows
How his last moments were spent

Every night for weeks
I cannot get to sleep
All I hear inside my head
Their words on me slowly creep


    Ring a ring of pumpkins
    Theirs fire in his eyes
    Us children of the fields
    As we dance, the burning pumpkin cries


Even the Crows Flew Away

Long ago
On this Halloween night
In the village churchyard
The scariest of sights

Gravestones moved
As they shook with the earth
A fissure opens
The church in girth

A reddening glow
Escapes from the depths
For before my eyes
They slowly crept

Ogres of old
From a long lost time
Disfigured, contorted
As they crawl through the grime

As i look from a distance
They wander in roam
Are they from our past
And now they've come home

The churchyard animals
Scatter and flee
What do i see happening
Right before me

Stories I've heard
My grandparents tell
When the earth was in turmoil
And all was not well

Evil ruled
In the days of the old
Is this happening again
And it's starting to unfold

What has made them
Come back this day
On this Halloween night
Even the crows flew away 

 

The Day the Crows Came

There lies in Salem
An abandoned church
It's outer walls
Blackened to black

The story behind this
Goes back many years
In the witches trials
17th century fears

Two courts
Convicted twenty nine people
Nineteen were hanged
From high, like a steeple

A Giles Corey
Never entered a plea
So he was crushed under heavy stones
Declared a witch was he

On the day they were hanged
As witches they were tamed
The skies above became black
Its the day the crows came

The church became shadowed
Under their mass in the sky
Lured by the nineteen
Who were hung out to dry

What did they do
To be become so feared
In these days of the past
When anybody could be smeared

Every year
Is exactly the same
The skies become black
The day the crows came

 

When the Ravens Fly

Before me he stands
A figure of man
On reflection i see
What other ravens can

He changes on will
A dark flier he becomes
Whether he flies by the moon
Or flies by the sun

When he flies through the trees
All other ravens bow
With their wings outstretched
To their master they vow

To serve and honour
Their shape shifting soul
To follow him at will
Whatever their goal

The next time you walk
In the woods or the park
And you see ravens fly by
Be well afraid of the dark