| ROBERTY PINSKY: Part
of Halloween's point seems to be, "We have met the enemy and he is
us," as the late Walt Kelly had his cartoon character say. That fear
of what is inside, and of what we put on outside, is given a brief, powerful
adult definition in this poem by Charles Simic, "Empire of Dreams."
On the first page of my dreambook
It's always evening
In an occupied country.
Hour before the curfew.
A small provincial city.
The houses all dark.
The store-fronts gutted.
I am on a street corner
Where I shouldn't be.
Alone and coatless
I have gone out to look
For a black dog who answers to my whistle.
I have a kind of halloween mask
Which I am afraid to put on.
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