Spooky World
Cathleen Calbert

No one told us it would cost twenty dollars each
          and we’d be forced to turn up and down turnstiles,
              subjected to “Scareoke,” anyone invited to take the mike
                          while unrelated images whizzed by on a big screen,
                                  but we got a kick out of the guy who banged away
                                              at the air in front of his fly during guitar solos
                                                      as though he actually were doing something
                                                               and the feature of the evening, Tiny Tim,
                                                   with his ukulele, playing “Tiptoe through the Tulips”
                                                along with lesser hits. Now he’s dead (heart attack
                                          as he struggled through his signature song).
                                  I hope it wasn’t in front of other thrill-seekers
                      waiting for adolescent boys with hockey masks
         and buzz saws to leap from the trees and assault
their senses between acts of head-chopping
        before the finale, a girl taking a shower in her flesh-
                colored body stocking, red spewing over the cubicle
                            when the ax murderer inevitably discovers her.
                                                After we took our turn, I looked to you.
                                                            A teenaged Reaper walked with me.
                                                                        At first, I didn’t find it amusing.
                                                                                    I don’t know that I ever did.


Author's Note

Cathleen Calbert is the author of three books of poetry: Lessons in Space (University of Florida Press, 1997), Bad Judgment (Sarabande Books, 1999), and Sleeping with a Famous Poet (CustomWords, forthcoming 2007). Her poems and stories have appeared in numerous publications, including Ms., The New Republic, and The Paris Review. Her awards include The Nation Discovery Award, a Pushcart Prize, and the Tucker Thorp Professorship at Rhode Island College, where she directs the Creative Writing Program.