Halloween Cheer (A Poem)

By Joyce Jacobo

[Author’s Note: Based on an experience I had this Halloween, where I realized just how much fun it was to even just be out and about for errands on that special occasion. It makes me think that maybe I should get dressed up next year. The connections that people can make based on what you choose to dress up as can really brighten someone’s day–which is what I learned.]

The clerk at Barnes & Noble

wore a cloak of checkered pink and black fabric

“Do you have a membership card?” she asked

all routine

“Of course” I replied

“You’re Howl from Howl’s Moving Castle, right?”

At once her eyes lit up and a smile blossomed on her face

“You’re only the second person to guess who I am–

everyone else has thought I’m a jester.”

She pointed to the golden button at the neck of her cape

“This came off but I sewed it on with pink thread.”

Pride infused her words

and we parted on that uplifting note

from a mundane transaction so easily forgotten

to a happy memory

on a late Halloween afternoon