Child Zombies Haiku

gathering dark ...

child zombies leapfrog laughing

through gravestones

NeverEnding Story, October 31 2025

Added:

strays outbark each other

phalanx after phalanx

of dark grim reapers 

Added:

On this night, all the spirits stirring, jack-o’-lanterns grinning wider.

shrouded head to toe in red

a girl skims ghostlike

through the dark -- scything

Note: For more about gembun, see "To the Lighthouse" post, Gembun, Untitled Minimalist Haibun

Added:

clomp! clomp! clomp! 

in gathering dark a phalanx 

of Trump zombies

Grim Reaper Haiku

his scythe dripping blood

the Grim Reaper has stepped

right out of my dreams

NeverEnding Story, October 31 2024

Added:

the buzz and flicker

of War Cemetery's "War"

Eve of All Hallows

Added:

shrouded head to toe 

in red a girl skims ghostlike 

through the dark, scything

Added:

night closing in

the gap-toothed smile

of a toddler ghost

FYI: For more Halloween haiku, see Special Feature: Halloween Haiku for Your Reading "Pleasure"

Added:

sleepless again

I doomscroll through Trump zombie

and GAGA ghosts

Added:

this ghostly halo ...

my old friend's head

ringed by spiky strands

of white hair glittering

in Halloween moonlight

Ghostly Silence Haiku

this ghostly silence ...

face to face with a gang

of Grim Reapers

Scarlet Dragonfly Journal, Halloween, 2023

The Safest Halloween Ever

Three Hundred and Fifty-Second Entry, Coronavirus Poetry Diary

written in response to CBC News, Oct. 27: "How to celebrate Halloween safely this year with COVID-19 and other viruses lurking: Infectious diseases expert says exposure may put strain on overburdened health network

Halloween eve

a new wave of lockdowns

in China

subvariants surging ...

a gang of grim reapers

double masked

trick or treat ...

Reese's Cups, M&M's and a box

of rapid tests

NeverEnding Story, October 31 2022

FYI: Reuters, Oct. 31: China's COVID curbs strand Shanghai Disney visitors

Video obtained by Reuters showed a huge crowd of visitors stranded at Disney's Shanghai resort on Monday, after the park abruptly suspended operations to comply with COVID-19 prevention measures.

All visitors at the time of the announcement were told they could not to leave the resort until they return a negative COVID test.

Added: written in response to the South Korea Halloween stampede

two red handprints

on Happy Halloween ...

150 deaths

Added: written in response to USA Today, Nov 3: Seoul, South Korea Halloween stampede leaves over 150 dead

row upon row of shoes

with name tags to be filled out ...

Halloween stampede

FYI: The New Yorker, Nov.2 : In Itaewon, Another Betrayal of Young Koreans.

The nation’s abiding emotion is, understandably, grief. But there is also a blood-boiling rage...Why have politicians and bureaucrats, of both major parties, failed so radically at the basic provision of public safety? 

Double Masked Grim Reaper

new subvariants ...

a double masked Grim Reaper

demands candy

Scarlet Dragonfly Journal, October 31, 2022

Omicron Strains and Halloween Skeletons Tanka

Three Hundred and Fiftieth Entry, Coronavirus Poetry Diary

immune-evasive

Omicron strains are coming ...

skeletons

hang from an oak tree

in Halloween dusk

NeverEnding Story, October 29 2022

FYI: Yahoo News, October 12: WHO issues new warning over winter flu surge and COVID wave.

And CNBC, Oct. 28: Omicron subvariants resistant to key antibody treatments are increasing every week in the U.S.

The subvariants BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 now represent 27% of infections in the U.S., a significant jump from the week prior when they made up about 16% of new cases, according to CDC data published Friday.

Added: Three Hundred and Fifty-First Entry, Coronavirus Poetry Diary

cold and flu season

with covid19 in the mix ...

layers of dark clouds

FYI: The Washington Post, Oct. 28: So far, this flu season is more severe than it has been in 13 years 

And Democracy Now, Oct.27: Children’s Hospitals See Surge in RSV as Experts Warn of Winter "Tripledemic" of Respiratory Illness

Public health experts in the United States are warning of a possible "tripledemic" of respiratory illness this winter: an increase in COVID cases, an early flu season and a surge in cases of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). 

Added: This Brave New World, LXI

written on the Day of Halloween and in response to Amanda Gorman's tweet, "One Education under Desks"

Attack of Fright

this unspoken weight 

of a plantation ghost story 

clomp! clomp! clomp! ...

gunshots outside 

under the teacher's desk

two skeletons

FYI: The following is the full text:

Schools scared to death.

The truth is, one education under desks,

Stooped low from bullets;

That plunge when we ask

Where our children

Shall live

& how

& if 

The Face and Twilight Deepening Haiku

the face in the pumpkin

stares at me, or not at me ...

twilight deepening

PoemHunter, November 2 2021

Halloween: Behind The Mask

Two Hundred and Eightieth Entry, Coronavirus Poetry Diary

dripping blood

from my front door banner:

no trick or treat

hazy streetlight

teen vampires kissing

with masks under their chins

more hotspots 

added to the Covid heat map

déjà vu nightmare

NeverEnding Story, October 31 2021 

Added: Two Hundred and Eighty-First Entry

the click of a fan

in my quarantine room ...

breakthrough cases surge

Masked Grim Reaper Haiku

Two Hundred and Seventy-Eighth Entry, Coronavirus Poetry Diary

written on Halloween Eve

gathering dark

the masked Grim Reaper's eyeballs

bulge out of his skull

NeverEnding Story, October 30 2021

Added: Two Hundred and Seventy-Ninth Entry

prolonged quarantine

the sound of midnight

rough sex next door

Hogtown Ghost House Tanka

One Hundred Thirty-Third  Entry, Coronavirus Poetry Diary

Hogtown ghost house

under the blue blood moon

a Trump Tower

of giant jack-o-lanterns

with No Party masks

NeverEnding Story, November 1 2020

Note: Listen to the Haunted Hogtown (nickname of Toronto): A historian walks us through the city’s spookiest stories podcast

Added: One Hundred Thirty-Fourth Entry

an old masked man

tells the same jokes to the grave

Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos)

Spooky Distancing Haiku

One Hundred Thirty-Second  Entry, Coronavirus Poetry Diary

blue blood moon

between lines of Grim Reapers

spooky distancing

NeverEnding Story, October 31 2020

Added

To so-called "professional anarchists, violent mobs, arsonists, looters, criminals, rioters, Antifa..."

Halloween twilight

an army of the walking dead

... and a Trump lookalike

blood-dripping 

Trump lookalike bangs on my door

Halloween dusk

Jack-O-Lanterns with VOTE Masks Haiku

One Hundred Thirty-First  Entry, Coronavirus Poetry Diary

 

front porch forum

a row of jack-o-lanterns
with VOTE masks

PoemHunter, October 30 2020

Here and Gone

Halloween street party:
dads and moms
marching with arms linked
through an army
of rainbow-clad zombies

one by one
little zombies disappear
into the dark ...
on my long way home
a mix of rain and snow

NeverEnding Story, October 31, 2019

Halloween Twilight Senryu

lockheruplockhimup ...
from both sides of the fence
Halloween twilight 

PoemHunter, October 31, 2019

Selected Haiku: Halloween Night Haiku

on a power line
onecrowafteranother
Halloween twilight

NeverEnding Story, Ocboter 31 2015

Halloween Party Haiku

Halloween party
the lingering smell
of Grim Reaper

NeverEnding Story, October 31, 2018

Blood Dripping Haiku

blood dripping
off his silver scythe
4-foot Grim Reaper

NeverEnding Story, October 31, 2018

Crying Grim Reaper Senryu

barefoot at the end
of the checkout line
crying Grim Reaper

Haikuniverse, October 31, 2018

Breaking News

white house leaks

onecrowafteranother

in the Halloween dusk

When the streets fall under a blanket of darkness, the army of the walking dead begins their march. On a street corner, a pitbull bares its teeth, growling. A high-pitched scream penetrates the night... 

PoemHunter, November 1 2017

Note: The haibun  is an expanded version of the following haiku:

Halloween dusk
the army of the dead
...and a barking dog

Special Feature: Halloween Haiku, NeverEnding Story 

Chen-ou Liu

All Hallows' Eve Haiku

a shadow
looming over me
All Hallows' Eve

PoemHunter, October 31, 2016