'Any Creepy Clown on Halloween' by Donal Mahoney

​Any Creepy Clown on Halloween


The tale’s a parable 
and it scares Bill 
more than 
any creepy clown
hiding behind a tree
on Halloween.

The tale says 
heaven’s like a net
cast out to sea and then 
tugged back with fish galore,
the good fish saved,
the bad fish tossed away.

When Bill was a boy  
in Bible school, 
the parable scared him 
and at age 80 
it scares him still 

because it says 
angels will separate 
the wicked from the just 
and cast the wicked 
into a furnace.

Every Halloween 
Bill thinks about  
the weeping and 
gnashing of teeth
the parable mentions
at the end. 


That scares him 
more than 
any creepy clown
hiding behind a tree 
on Halloween.




Donal Mahoney