All Hallow's Eve

Theology Today, Jan 1997 by Westerfield, Nancy G

Brother Martin has turned on the monastery's Portal lights to welcome any trick-or-treaters, And Brother Matthew, manning the entryway, Has set out his pumpkin-colored party cups Of treats. They wait. Only a neighborhood Few will come tonight, from those parish Families who remember the monastery's friendly Lights from their own childhood. Most Will be driven out to the Mall For its strobe-lit ghoulishness. Evening Deepens. The steps have been ascended By scarcely a dozen solemn witches, clowns, And Cinderellas. Brother Martin yawns, When the bell is rung. The foursome at the doorway Are curiously costumed, curiously crowned by masks, Their hands extended more as in giving than asking. Dimly in that wan light, they loom alien And yet familiar, friendly: one tall and leonine, One eagle-headed, one ox-horned, one a man.

Nancy G. Westerfield's poetry and prose have appeared in the pages of The Christian Century, Commonweal, The Christian Science Monitor, Modern Liturgy, Plumbline, and The Living Church, among others. She was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.