Ode to Jack-O-Lantern

The life and death of a Jack-O-Lantern

Halloween at last has come,
Spirits are no longer glum!
Jack-O-Lantern on the porch,
Glowing with a single torch:
Pumpkin carved with gruesome face,
Grimace frozen in its place,
Eyes aglow with ghoulish blaze,
Capturing the children's gaze.
Trick-or-treaters, here and there,
Dare to brave Jack's burning stare.
After they and pumpkin meet,
Their reward: A candied treat!
Gleefully away they go,
Guided by Jack's eerie glow.

Dawn dispels Jack's ghastly light,
Halloween has fled the night!
Once his torch had brightly burned,
Jack-O-Lantern now is spurned.
Once this pumpkin's life had meant
Costumed children's merriment,
Now his use has waned away.
Left to rot, this castaway,
Jack-O-Lantern by the can
Is a garbage partisan,
Pumpkin top of blackened soot
By his face where it was put.
Halloween away has fled,
Jack-O-Lantern, oh how dead!