This morning I got to watch an impressive Halloween parade with children of all ages in their costumes. Tonight, of course, is that weird and wonderful ritual of childhood in which kids are invited to knock on the doors of neighbors, saying, “Trick or treat!” Then they will hold out a bag or a plastic pumpkin, hoping the adults in the entryway will toss candy into it. If they’re lucky, the treat will be something other than a Mounds candy bar with its dark chocolate-encased, coconut-based center. Yuck. I prefer Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Mmmm.

As promised, this week’s theme for writing haiku is Halloween. It might be about candy or costumes or feeling really scared. So have fun creating one verse with five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in the second line, and five syllables in the third line. I thought of the door in my neighborhood that I was the most afraid to approach as a child. Walking up to that door made my heart race year after year:

On Ben Nevis Drive,
the house at the end, haunted,
just on Halloween.