If you’re a scraggly-looking tree in an empty lot
and a workman comes along and sprays an orange “X”
on you, you’ve got to think it’s not a decoration
for Halloween but rather it’s an indication
that soon another workman will come with a chainsaw
and you’re going to be the victim of a slasher,
and you’re going to be the tree-in-an-empty-lot
equivalent of the babysitter who drinks beer
and takes the kids next door so she can have sex upstairs
and the actress who plays you won’t be in the sequel.
“Number two: The death scenes are always much more elaborate. More blood. More gore. Carnage candy. Your core audience just expects it.”
from Randy’s Sequel Rules
in “Scream 2”
After Halloween people put down the candy jars
and store away their costumes, and work crews cut down trees
and haul away the logs. Sequels are never as good
as the original. Or maybe we remember
the candy and costumes and first things just seem better
because they’ve had a chance to grow in our memory,
to put down roots—so to speak—to spread branches upward
and become shapes that shape the landscape of our thinking.
(We think of Halloween as being for children but
maybe monsters are the way old people clear their minds.)
Young people are the sequel to old people and kids
have a very slick, high-tech landscape in their young heads
and the image is sharp and the colors are brilliant.
After Halloween there is only next Halloween.
For really young kids it will be their first Halloween.
Laughing, all dressed up, swinging bags of candy, they’ll run
through the spaces where trees used to grow without knowing
trees used to grow there and laughing, all dressed up, swinging
bags of candy, they’ll say, “This is the best Halloween
ever! No way next year will be as good as this year!”
and store away their costumes, and work crews cut down trees
and haul away the logs. Sequels are never as good
as the original. Or maybe we remember
the candy and costumes and first things just seem better
because they’ve had a chance to grow in our memory,
to put down roots—so to speak—to spread branches upward
and become shapes that shape the landscape of our thinking.
(We think of Halloween as being for children but
maybe monsters are the way old people clear their minds.)
Young people are the sequel to old people and kids
have a very slick, high-tech landscape in their young heads
and the image is sharp and the colors are brilliant.
After Halloween there is only next Halloween.
For really young kids it will be their first Halloween.
Laughing, all dressed up, swinging bags of candy, they’ll run
through the spaces where trees used to grow without knowing
trees used to grow there and laughing, all dressed up, swinging
bags of candy, they’ll say, “This is the best Halloween
ever! No way next year will be as good as this year!”
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Kite Flying In America (With Trout)
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