Samhain

Halfway between the Autumn Equinox and the Winter Solstice is the Sabbat of Samhain, October 31. This was considered the beginning of winter, the New Year, in the Celtic areas of Europe; a time of transition, when the borders between the human world and the worlds beyond grew thin. This was a time for confronting Spirit and Shadow; creativity, and the darkness that must be faced to access it.

Shadow Dance

All Hallows,
    when the shadows walk

A man in a gray silk suit
    frowns past the rags sleeping in a doorway

Shadows dance around him

    poor man, broken, skinny, ragged,
    wearing his face,
    waves begging hands

    schoolteacher, prim, starched in blue dress,
    wearing his face,
    scolds his shortcomings

    drunk weaves around, supported by tarts,
    while wearing his face,
    snowing drugs from all pockets

Business man looks straight ahead
and scowls his firm way home

At the bus stop where the young blacks cuss
    and laugh and slap each other
Fifty Year Woman in tight-waved hair and tailored dress
    draws into the far corner with a frown

Shadows dance around her

    big bellied teen girl
    wearing her face
    stands forlorn at a locked door

    stern, high-collared preacher
    wearing her face
    looms dark in the pulpit

    naked, shouting dancer
    wearing her face
    writhes in a many-colored feast of bodies

She reads the Wall Street Journal
with tight-pursed lips

Down the same street
    moves a writer

Shadows dance around her
    and she dances

    arm in arm with the bag lady
    wearing her face
    she waltzes
    and smiles at the man who lies in the doorway

    face to face with the punk
    wearing her face
    she rocks and slams
    "Yo!" she answers the young blacks at the bus stop

As she dances into the hallowed sun
on the other side of shadows

© Anitra L. Freeman