Poem – TRICK OR TREAT? (By Ray Gallucci)

 

TRICK OR TREAT?

 

“Good Christians” warn that Halloween’s

A festival of Satan,

When nothing’s standing in between

Your soul and its damnation.

 

For centuries, they witches burned

With little provocation.

Eternal fire claimed they’d earned.

For mercy — strangulation!

 

The Inquisition paid you well

For friend’s denunciation,

Provided friend was rich as hell

For Church’s confiscation.

 

The “Day of Saints” to honor dead

Was Christian celebration,

Till Celtic lore imposed instead

Autumnal connotation.

 

Samhain* their harvest holiday

Ere winter’s hibernation,

When eating, drinking, sped the way

Of spirits to salvation.

 

Both ghosts and goblins walked the earth

In Celts’ imagination.

But Church saw little room for mirth

In such abomination.

 

Samhain became “All Hallow’s Eve,”

A night in preparation

For praising saints, which they believed

Would minimize temptation.

 

But medieval Church obsessed

With total domination

Of Europe, therefore, had to wrest

Control of cerebration.

 

So demons lurking everywhere,

Their clever postulation,

With witches flying through the air

And cloven fornication.

 

On Halloween, they focused all

Their hate and trepidation.

Condemned it as a hellish ball

Of evil’s culmination.

 

Removed they “undesirables”

By faulty accusation,

Preserving “Christian principles”

‘Mid purging conflagration.

 

At last, in eighteenth century

Such nonsense met cessation

When rational humanity

Developed toleration.

 

Now Fundamentalists dismiss

A child’s anticipation

Of Halloween by calling this

“Satanic recreation.”

 

Like Torquemadas vivified,

They thrive on condemnation

Of challenge to their narrow lives

Of mental constipation.

 

So on October 31st,

Keep kids in isolation,

Lest pumpkin carved or mummy cursed

Be devil’s invitation.

____________________

* Pronounced “sow-in”

 

(published in BIBLIOPHILOS, Fall 2000, pp. 38-40; MÖBIUS, Fall-Winter 2000, p. 7; DANA LITERARY SOCIETY ONLINE JOURNAL, October 2003; FULLOSIA PRESS ONLINE, March 2011)

 

Author Bio:



I am a Professional Engineer who has been writing poetry since 1990. I am an incorrigible rhymer, tending toward the skeptical/cynical regarding daily life. I have been fortunate to have been published in poetry magazines and on-line journals such as NUTHOUSE, MOTHER EARTH INTERNATIONAL, FEELINGS/POETS’ PAPER, MÖBIUS (when Jean Hull Herman published), PABLO LENNIS, MUSE OF FIRE, SO YOUNG!, THE AARDVARK ADVENTURER, POETIC LICENSE, THUMBPRINTS, UNLIKELY STORIES, BIBLIOPHILOS, FULLOSIA PRESS, NOMAD’S CHOIR, HIDDEN OAK, PABLO LENNIS, POETSESPRESSO, SOUL FOUNTAIN, WRITER’S JOURNAL, ATLANTIC PACIFIC PRESS, DERONDA REVIEW, LYRIC, THE STORYTELLER, WRITE ON! and DANA LITERARY SOCIETY.