The House Near the Park
Brooding, unlit and unkempt
A house that is daylight exempt
Sits three doors down from the park
Its doors and its windows are dark
Weekly a grocer arrives
Drops off a bag of supplies
The door opens not very wide
A hand pulls the shopping inside
Neighbours still say tongue in cheek
That’s the highlight of the week
It’s what happens once every year
That fills local children with fear
It shuffles out onto the street
With Wellington boots on its feet
A wizened old thing with a stoop
Its head doesn’t raise from a droop
It makes an incongruous sight
As it strolls looking not left nor right
In clothes dirty brown, who would think
It would tote a small coat that is pink
And just as the street lamps alight
Portending the coming of night
’tis said that he walks in the dark
To grab a young kid in the park
*
And then at the lake his step doesn't break
He simply walks into the water
And as it gets colder the coat on his shoulder
He wraps ’round his long missing daughter
*
A brief but chilled wind whispers, ‘Daisy’
The lake’s surface mist rises hazy
The breeze hums along to a young girl’s song
But the old man and young girl are gone
Emerging from behind a hedge
Kids hurry up to the edge
The bravest one reaches to take
A little pink coat from the lake
***
It’s what happens once every year
That fills local children with fear
It shuffles out onto the street
With Wellington boots on its feet
_____
[Wellington boots = Rubber boots]
Copyright © Terry Flood | Year Posted 2021
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