Halloween was once a neighborhood event
You didn’t drive your kids to a better
Area so they’d reap more crap
Kids improvised costumes jeans
Red kerchief cowboy hat toy
Six shooter Voila buckaroo
An old sheet with cut eyeholes
An instant ghost Jean sewed
Witches’ capes hats mouse costumes
Pumpkin suits with cardboard acrylics
Andy made the sword shield and
Buckler for Hagar the Horrible
The Indian was the last costume Jean
Made passed down to Peter that year
We lived in Cleveland Heights
On Tullamore Road near the
High school we’d bought a house
Between two black families naive
Believers in integration stability
Our street was about half and half
Knew almost everybody they’d
Watched our kids grow from babies
Either Jean or I would walk them
Up one side back down the other
Fifty houses avoiding unlit porches
Uniform signal of not participating
Still their plastic pumpkins at the end
Returned laden with snackies candies
Pennies maybe a piece of fruit I’d
Taken the kids ‘round that year we’d
Made jack o’lanterns for the porch
Steps Jean had a large metal mixing
Bowl full of goodies to reward scary
Boogers coming back the pumpkins
Had been smashed against the stone
Steps shattered shards hurled against
The door Jean was inside shaking
The bowl almost empty teen boys
Had come just in regular clothes
Demanded candy Jean told them
No costume no goodies closed the
Door heard them screaming as they
Kicked the pumpkins apart and
Threw the pieces at the door
We didn’t think to report what
They'd done chalked it up to
Boorish sorry ass teen behavior
Cleaned it up glad it hadn’t
Been worse next day
I came home Jean was crying
She had just shared it with our
Neighbor who had two young girls
Asked why didn’t you just
Give them the candy Jean said
Because they wore no costumes
And they were rude you didn’t
Treat them they gave you their trick
I told them if they came back
Dressed in old clothes as hoboes
Or something I’d give them candy
Without a glimmer of sympathy she said
It was because they were black then
Smugly walked back to her house
Living together we decided will
Take a lot more than just living
Side by side
c. J.S.Manista, 2015
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