I'm so proud that my #Halloween poem, Halloween Date From Hell is going to published as a picture book by #VentorrosPress in 2022. It will be illustrated by the brilliant #ChrisWhite.
However, after a request from #BrianMoses for new Halloween poems for his latest brilliant blog, I decided it was time to come up with a fresh, new poem for #Halloween2021
#Dracupuss has lived long in my head as a character but I could never found a place for her. But at last I found a poem for Dracupuss (a.k.a Miss Fluffykins) to live in forever.
Dracupuss & Frankenmouse
All year, she is Miss Fluffykins
A cat about the house
All year, he is their Munchkin Nose
A timid, squeaking mouse
But once a year on Halloween
as lightning strikes and storms
Miss Fluffykins and Munchkin Nose
beneath the moon, transform
For one night she is Dracupuss
and he is Frankenmouse
On tip-toe, razor claws they creep
and sneak outside the house
The fangs of Dracupuss, like scythes
shine sharp beneath the stars
The face and fur of Frankenmouse
all cut and slashed with scars
As zombie boys and ghoulish girls
with armless, harmless gore
demand their cookies, candies, sweets
at each and open door …
Unseen, the duo scurry in
between the children’s feet
for cat and mouse must slink inside
so they can Trick or Treat
They Trick or Treat the guinea pigs
The hamsters, budgies, dogs
They Trick or Treat the fish in bowls
The geckos, snakes and frogs
The pets afraid, they always Treat
Give everything they’ve got
And Dracupuss and Frankenmouse
They bag the blooming lot
November first, as dawn yawns wide
and nightmares all subside
Miss Fluffykins and Munchkin Nose
awake, confused, red-eyed
They wonder why surrounding them
are crickets, worms and bones
and branches, perches, hamster wheels
They shake their heads and groan
From bowl and kennel both appear
“How did these end up here?”
“I just don’t know Miss Fluffykins,
it happens every year!”
Mark Bird