Beware

Don't stray too far into the woods,
come back home before
the moonlight casts its ghostly shadows
and lures you away from the straight path.

Don't go near the old barn,
the farmer there is said to behave strangely
since his wife drowned in the river
behind the old forest.

Beware of the swamps,
many have died there,
lost and never found,
being dragged to a wet and dark grave.

Don't play with the kids
living in the mansion up the hill,
their mother is not sane
and they are a strange kind.

Don't walk home through the old cemetery,
strange things have been seen there,
don't follow the voices in the wind,
they will lead you astray.

Leave the roads when the eerie
autumn mists appear, floating silently,
don't look too long at the shadows,
you might become one of them.




First published here.