They rehearse the silly play
under tall oak trees
in a Texas graveyard,
approximate the garb and speech
of those who have become their props,
their prime reveling destination
on Halloween hayrides.
I imagine, leaning on the fence,
that even the stone angels
are muttering among themselves
more than a few barbed words
that will never enter heaven.
—Darrell Lindsey is the author of Edge of the Pond (Popcorn Press, 2012) and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize (2007) and a Rhysling Award (2014). He won the 2012 Science Fiction Poetry Association Contest (Long Form category), as well as the 2014 Balticon Poetry Contest.