Thirteen Halloween Haiku

I.
Spiced apple cider
Moonlit hayride, bonfire
The perfect fall night 

II.
A cold snap brings rain
We rush through its icy sting
Kids trick-or-treating 

III.
Eve of All Hallows
Spirits gambol in the streets
Loosed from within us 

IV.
Knife squeaks stabbing eyes
Scent of flesh and rent innards
Your jack-o’-lantern

V.
Small sweet waxy cones
Scarcely anyone eats them
I love candy corn

VI.
Spider guards the porch
She frightens all the children
But she’s just rubber

VII.
In the moon’s blue glow
I kiss a girl with black lips
That come away red

VIII.
My deathly pallor
Colored costumes clash with mine
I crashed this party

IX.
Fallen leaves molder
They give the breeze all it needs
To cense our season

X.
White streamers billow
Poor pumpkin heads lay there, smashed
Pranksters in the dark

XI.
Cuddle up close, dear
The undead hordes are coming
Horror-movie date

XII.
Hear the fearful shrieks
Boys and girls queue up for Hell
It’s a haunted house

XIII.
Snickers bars are good
So are mini Tootsie Pops
But, please, no wax lips

* * * * *

Haiku is descended from a form of Japanese poetry called renga. Traditionally, haiku are untitled, deal with the subject of nature, and consist of seventeen syllables divided into three lines — five, seven, then five again. The last time I wrote one was as a middle-school class assignment, so I thought it might be fun to trot the form back out today, on a lark.

Using the comments box at the bottom of this page, feel free to share your own Halloween haiku. I’d love to see what someone else does with this theme.