jack-o’-lanterns glow

By Gloria Harvey

Copyright ©2026

At midnight’s lip, the jack-o’-lanterns glow,

Their wicked grins all amber, low, and sly.

You move like smoke where moonlit shadows flow,

A velvet spell beneath a bruised-oak sky.

Your mask slips down, but not enough to hide

The hunger sparking softly in your stare.

Black lace, red wine, the candleflames collide,

And cinnamon shivers through the haunted air.

The ghosts lean close, then blush and drift away,

Too shy to haunt the heat between our hands.

Your laugh turns every gravestone bright as day,

Your touch makes magic of these cursed lands.

I taste October sweet upon your skin,

Like sugared apples, cloves, and stolen sin.

The werewolves hush. The bats forget to fly.

The stars burn hotter just to watch us try.

Come closer, darling, let the darkness see

How beautifully a spell can be undone.

No broom, no charm, no graveyard curse could free

This fever rising higher than the sun.

So kiss me slow where pumpkin lanterns gleam,

Where night wraps round us, warm as satin thread.

Let Halloween become our favorite dream,

Half wild with want, half whispered by the dead.