Revenants from Halloween 1984

For Halloween 1984, I dressed up as our favorite crazy mixed-up kid.

 

With green makeup, an old suit, and wooden empty thread spools, I staggered through the neighborhood.

As is proven by the second photo, the 18-month-old in the house was not particularly frightened.

Also in 1984, I came up with this scribbling (yes, it's a sonnet):

Nightmare

 by Mark Alfred

Friday the 13^th, April, 1984

Enveloping, it chafes and smothers you;

You have no warning; then it is too late

To keep from seeing what no others do.

This is your private torment; yours the gate

That leads into the hidden, dim recess

Of every misbegotten lust and dream.

For nothing here forbids: no foul excess

Can be denied in this dark-litten gleam.

Your self is yourself’s pris’ner, and no cell

Could grip with clammy clutch to such intent.

Awakened, you must sleep, and who could tell

What horrors lurked in sleep, or what they meant?

It seems the grandest terrors still remain;

Your pleasant, daylight heart must bear the stain.


See you on Wednesday, fellow frighteners!