Ghost Poem

Roaming through the woods one night
I saw some coloured lights
Pulsate like fireflies through the stark trees.
Wonderingly I picked my moonlit way
Through the brush to a hill
Where I stood on a trunk overlooking
A campground where there were gathered
Like some Chinese lanterns
A many-coloured group of ghosts,
Regaling each other with ghost jokes.
Motionless I watched until
One of them noticed me and hailed.

Steadily I hailed him in return.
Then after waiting one uncertain moment
I trippingly meandered back homeward
Through the shadows and the clasping branches,
Till I paused at a fork to remember the way
And looked up from the root-strewn path.
Something swooped over my head from behind,
And descended on a broomstick in front of me.
She cocked her head at me innocently,
And I looked into her icy witch eyes.
I felt something stop inside.
We flew away into the night.