Sam Gardiner
Life-Masks
Too early again, Hallowe’en sets the dogs
barking and the unbaptised tricked out for treats
doorknocking weeks before. Unlike last
Christmas which, for the first time ever,
saw not a single barefaced angel: Silent Nights.
Tricks is what the next devil, dark power
or monster to drum on the door will get.
Tap tap tap. He tears the door off its hinges
glares down at a terrified child
in the ill-fitting face of a witch ripe for burning,
dressed in a pumpkin-shaped ballgown
fashioned from black plastic bin-liners,
bagged for putting out with the rubbish.
Her hair bristles in frightful crimson spikes
(thanks, sister) and in her hand a broom
of twigs torn from the council’s tree
(brilliant, brother). The mask brings
freedom, but not from the mouth
behind the mouth, the eyes within the eyes.
They stare at each other in disbelief,
and she licks her lips. And whispers,
“If you haven’t got a penny a ha'penny will do.
If you haven’t got a ha’ penny...” and loses her voice.
“Wait, he commands and turns back for change,
and returns to hold out a £1 coin to thin air.
That was a Guy Fawkes jingle anyway, he says
slams the door on the empty street, locks it,
and readjusts the mask eating his face.
Page(s) 28
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The