impractical magic in poetry

it’s important to process Halloween
as a burlesque of death’s power
as a fool’s day against the end
our only small power at all
in the face of this oblivion
is the solace of laughter
we need to leave ourselves
room to laugh at death
it’s all that we have

this liminal place
this veil between the now
and what dreams may come
is the thinnest today
not because of some arbitrary
arithmatic calendaric quirk
but rather because we
believe it to be so

magic if there is any
if it is good or if it’s bad
is not in dates or numbers or
even in our bloodlines but
rather in our shared beliefs
so all we can do is laugh
laugh at it and hope that
we can laugh it all away
for a little while
for one arbitrary day
on the cusp between
October and November
as we believe it
to be so