Wednesday, October 29, 2014

One Spooky Night, When the Moon was Full

museumvictoria.com.au

Dad and Brother hooked up horse and wagon,
went into town for a night of drinking.
Sister stayed home, as the hours passed,
finally heard the hooves in the lane at last.

Thundering down the poplar-lined lane,
horse and wagon were coming fast.
She opened the door; no one was there.
The thundering hooves were made of air.

Next day they came to tell the news.
Her dad and brother got into the booze,
over-turned their wagon on the way home,
horse and men all dead; she left alone.

For the rest of her years, when the moon was full
at the stroke of midnight she'd hear the hooves
galloping down the poplar lined lane,
all three heading homeward once again.

A hundred years passed, the tale oft' told.
Two teens set out, scoffing and bold,
parked their car towards midnight 
at the end of the lane,
heard the hooves and never were the same again.

True story. In Kelowna, off Guisachan Road, I would bike past this long lane lined with poplars - it always looked spooky and forbidding. My grandma told me the story of the horse hooves, and one summer the local paper reported  two teens, who decided the story was a lot of hooey,  parked their car, one full moon night,  at the end of the lane and waited. Sure enough, towards midnight, they heard the hooves galloping. It totally freaked them out. I dont think anyone ever lived in that house after the woman died. No wonder.

posted for Susan's prompt at Mid Week Motif: Hallowe'en, or Celebrating the Dead. Write a poem that tells a story.

22 comments:

  1. Sherry, your poem too gave me a reason to believe that some ghosts dwell forever in a setting looking for absolution to an unsolved issue they went through while alive. Happy Halloween!

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  2. Sherry,

    Filled with creepy fear after reading your wonderful story. It reminded me of old stories told to me by my paternal grandfather too at Halloween..Not a time I like!!

    Happy Dreams,
    Eileen

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  3. Classic! I like too the hint that what happened to that horse drawn wagon might also happen to teens in a car should they indulge! Ghostly warning. I'd try to hear them too.

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  4. well that gives a bit of the shivers....i grew up with a graveyard in the backyard...so i have a few spooky stories...and surely i have seen and even heard a ghost or two....

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  5. This is an excellent Halloween tale, Sherry! I don't blame people for not living in that house!

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  6. Ooh... scary. I love it. True or not, it reminds me about how our minds can play tricks on us.

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  7. that was both sad and scary at the same times. perhaps they were not ready yet that is why they let the death felt by someone they love :(

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  8. That was scary. There's so much mystery in this world. I like how you tell the story - the first one was enough, but then the teenagers. Wow.

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  9. There are a lot of ill omen spooky places here. I don't know the stories but you can feel that something is not good about them. They cover vast regions.It is to do with the spirit world of the Aborigines.

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  10. eerily good story, mi amiga

    BOOOOO!!!!!!

    hope i didn't scare you too much

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  11. It was scary enough before it was true....I believe teenagers are receptive to these supernatural things..I remember walking with a friend on a deserted railway line and for no reason it all went cold and the rubble of the banks tumbled down

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  12. How scary and spooking this sounds ~ I will be getting out of that place very quickly ~ Good tale Sherry, perfect for Halloween ~

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  13. What an appropriate tale to tell this time of year. Spooky noises are always the most disturbing.

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  14. A wonderful ghost tale -- I can imagine in my mind's ear/eye the tale being told around a campfire under a full moon!

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  15. Nicely spooky - and very well told, Sherry. I have heard true stories (from people I know and trust) about hearing the car drive up late at night, opening the door to find nothing there, and afterwards getting the news of accident and death. Fortunately these did not involve continued haunting! It seems the soul is drawn back to (earthly) home and loved ones in that moment. I also think that in sudden, violent death they don't always realise they have died.

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  16. We are foolish in youth...
    What a story, what a loss

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  17. Somehow youngsters more open to this kind of stories...scary, esp. today x

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  18. I enjoyed this as I remember tales such as this told to me when I was boy.

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  19. Goosebumps freaky, Sherry!

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