I'll Remember This

Trick or Treat is not something
he's been very into the last couple of years:
overstimulating, I guess -
it's a lot to process and
well, frankly, that kind of thing
bends reality a little bit, you know?

So we head out for the night
in a new town with a whole bunch of
people we don't know,
and he is the youngest among this
group of masked marauders
dressed as a wizard, close beside me,
holding my hand

...for a moment,
and then he's off and running
leading the group up
every darkened driveway
past skeletons and scarecrows
ghouls and graveyards,
and he never once looked back.