The Shadow
In honor of Actor Frank Reddick, Jr.
The evening in nineteen forty five was unusually warm.
It was only a few days until Halloween pranksters
came, braving the thickets.
Serenading the lightning was a bastion of Hawkers,
the last of summer’s cicada, and crickets.
My brother and I settled down in front of the radio,
that magical RCA marvel that brought nightly excitement,
bathing us in anticipation’s glow.
As we sat on the floor and looked up at it’s assent,
it seemed to rise disproportionately toward the ceiling.
Giving an air of mystery as moving curtains
cast its iridescent shadow, dancing and reeling,
rendering reality into a mode uncertain.
The clouds were moving in for a nightly storm.
Static popped and crackled as if part of the plot
as the announcer wove our minds out of the norm.
And just as dad left the room we heard a shot,
a scream and a blood curdling laugh and then......!
“Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men.....
The Shadow knows. hee hee hee heeeeeeee”
The Shadow, master of disguises, invisible to the eye.
He could control your thoughts and perception.
Just hearing him talk my little brother would cry.
There was always a good reason for deception.
And he had a good saying at the end of the shows.
“The weed of crime bears bitter fruit. Crime does
not pay.... The Shadow knows.”
~//~
Oct. 19 2010 Charles Henderson
2 nd in Paula's "Halloweens Passed"
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