Driveway to the Cemetery

A cold front takes hold, briskly reminding us that autumn and winter creep ever closer.  And so does a foreboding, demoralizing presidential election, but enough on that.  After all, I’m a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to bogeymen and untold horror.

So let us play make-believe for a moment and pretend the only things to fear are the phantoms, monsters and madmen that reside in our memories, from the movies and books and nightmares we were long since told to outgrow.

I recall a grainy, gray stroll through a secluded cemetery, a fleeting homage to a dear departed father, a thunderclap and flash above, and subsequently…a bit of harmless teasing somehow gone sinister. 

And then, as if born of that abhorrent jest on hallowed ground, a crude, pale figure appears.