or in the liquorice night
the road will break open and swallow<\/p>\n\n\n\n
those gone missing or silently hiding
inside small, bejewelled boxes<\/p>\n\n\n\n
inside stuffed or real animals
or when you open the door<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the children will be ghosts<\/p>\n\n\n\n
or pumpkins will rot to slime
you\u2019ll slip down the cement steps<\/p>\n\n\n\n
or the sweet will get stuck
between her tiny, pointed teeth<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and blood will come
from her pink gums like a vampire<\/p>\n\n\n\n
or nothing will ever be clean again
even with bleach<\/p>\n\n\n\n
or next year she will want to be
a sexy vampire<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and someone will offer
the whole bowl of sweets<\/p>\n\n\n\n
or after she empties the bowl into her plastic pumpkin
he will invite her in<\/p>\n\n\n\n
once inside
she removes her long black cape<\/p>\n\n\n\n
in odd socks she walks across the carpet<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and in the mirror on the mantel
she vanishes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
or in the liquorice nightthe road will break open and swallow those gone missing or silently hidinginside small, bejewelled boxes inside stuffed or real animalsor when you open the door the children will be ghosts or pumpkins will rot to slimeyou\u2019ll slip down the cement steps or the sweet will get stuckbetween her tiny, pointed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-264","poem","type-poem","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"author":[259]},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shoalsofstarlings.com\/shoalsofstarlingspress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/poem\/264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shoalsofstarlings.com\/shoalsofstarlingspress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/poem"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shoalsofstarlings.com\/shoalsofstarlingspress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/poem"}],"acf:post":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shoalsofstarlings.com\/shoalsofstarlingspress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-author\/259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shoalsofstarlings.com\/shoalsofstarlingspress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}