spooky times

October 26, 2025

/ HJ / Leave a comment

we’re getting closer
and closer
and closer
to spooky time
and i cannot help but feel
this halloween season is a little
lackluster—perhaps what with the being busy
perhaps with the fact that the administration is doing
far scarier things than the imaginary haunts and ghouls
ever could [a human monster is always so much worse], but
i wish i could enjoy october in the way i usually do…
but i simply don’t think that’s in the cards right now

and, honestly, that’s ok

September 1, 2025

/ HJ / Leave a comment

things i am looking forward to
as the season changes
from summer to fall:

not needing the a/c units blasting all the time
the smell of brewing pumpkin spice coffee wafting through the house
spooky music for morning pages
spooky things everywhere
the smell of fallen leaves being stepped on
the sound of fallen leaves being stepped on
the lessening of all these mosquitos
and feeling like the crisp wind has forced me
AWAKE
after months of lazy hazy summer days turned to nights turned to days

there is an ephemeral liminalness to autumn
that even though it harkens the coming of my most hated season
i still do love its passing by

October 31, 2023

/ HJ / Leave a comment

spooky Halloween day,
grey clouds blotting out the rising sun/
the apprehension as evening approaches
our last-minute costumes not quite done/
and the excitement to see children enjoying everything scary,
and friends visiting to help with vibes and such

i suppose this Halloween can still be awesome
[i’ve had doubts ever since last year’s COVID Halloween —
lonely, sickly, and distanced —
but it can be good again/
it can be good again]

September 30, 2022

/ HJ / Leave a comment

an end
to September
a month i thought i had
far more of
to do
and plan
and write
and post

but October is not an ending
it is a beginning
[as are all months,
but the winter ones feel more like finalés
than startings]
a beginning to a full month of fall,
a beginning to full-out spooky mode–
set out decorations
finalize plans for costumes
(maybe even plan a party),
a start to drawloween/inktober/drawtober/whatever we
decide to do
daily/weekly/monthly tasks
making the shorter days
fly by
with creativity
and panache
and a little bit of stress
and a whole lot of art

and i could get overwhelmed
with planning for November
and then how it’ll turn to December
in basically the blink of an eye
but i
have decided to live fully
inside this October
when it comes

but right now
good-bye,
September,
good-bye.

September 1, 2022

/ HJ / Leave a comment

i didn’t know
how much i was looking forward
to
spooky season
i didn’t know
how much
i needed
the halloween lofi
in my life[fi]
i might hazard
a guess
that this fall
i might even enjoy
the changing colors
and cooling breezes
and falling leaves
and season changes

but one thing’s for sure
i’m super stoked
to see skulls and bats
and skebletons and black cats
and ghosts and spiders and creepy shit
out in the real world
(not just inside our house)

August 29, 2022

/ HJ / Leave a comment

my life
my poetry
slides from
quirky/cute/fun/carefree
to
the biggest angst you’ll ever see
and i know my life is actually
somewhere in the middle
somewhere in the in-between
but i never learned to see any shades
between the black and white
structured
yes or no
now or never
fact or falsehood
good or bad
so that simply makes my life
hard to quantify
at this point
wherein it has
so much positivity
but still so much pain

maybe that’s why i like spooky times so much
it’s supposed to be so scary
but it provides me with so much comfort
that i calm down the minute i hear dissonant tones
theremin whines
and boos and bones
rattling scattering my confusion
at the difference of the two kinds of life
and reminds me
that it’s ok
to live between

thank halloween.