By: Joel Dettweiler
First Place Winner of the 2nd Annual Halloween Contest
Jack O’Lantern:
A field of dry grass, burning
Bare feet and a light in the eyes
Hungry, blazing, and sacred
Costume:
Imported clothes; a new shirt
Light brown hair, buzz-cut monthly
Oyinbo skin peeling in the sun
Tricks:
Long headache hours in hot cars
Whiny nights, threatening malaria,
Snakes and giant cockroaches
Treats:
The sweet taste of the first rain,
Impromptu pools formed in road ruts
Mosquito nets providing protection
Ghost stories:
Stacks and shelves of dusty books,
Faraway lands with strange customs –
“Walmart”, “snow”, and “Halloween”
Joel Dettweiler grew up as a missionary kid in Nigeria before attending
the College of Charleston for Computer Science. Upon learning that all
the unusual experiences in the world won’t help one find a date if one
cannot express them properly, he took up poetry as a study and hobby. He
has self-published one book of poems and is currently procrastinating
all of his homework by working on his second.