Hallowe'en Then and Now

Was a time 

(Said the old ghoul) 

We went 

From house to house 

Unsupervised 

Children in dark streets 

Appearing intermittently 

Under streetlights 

Eight or nine years old 

In our homemade costumes - 

Witch, ghost, zombie -

Taking candy from old people - 

Witches, ghosts, zombies -

In known and unknown houses 

In our neighborhood 

But we don’t do that now  

We walk with our kids 

Noting in our minds 

Where each goody came from 

Later we x-ray the candy apples 

Somewhere sometime 

Someone 

Put the first razorblade  

In an apple 

What did they feel 

Inside 

As they handed it 

To a child? 

By Tom Rubenoff