Rain slicks the porch boards black tonight
A carved grin leans in candlelight
Wind reads the psalms we used to sing
Through broken teeth of gourd and string
Hollow light on midnight porch
Flame holds the dark on prayer and torch
Altos hum where pumpkin glows
Hollow light where nothing goes
Wax drips like communion wine
On splintered hymnal pine and twine
The candle gutters breath held tight
Between the verse and All Hallows night
Footsteps creak the bottom stair
No child in costume waiting there
Just smoke that writes in cursive gray
The chorus that we used to pray
Hollow light on midnight porch
Flame holds the dark on prayer and torch
Altos hum where pumpkin glows
Hollow light where nothing goes
Organ drone through floorboard cracks
Mellotron breathes the anthem back
Cello bows the minor third
We sang it once we sang it heard
Dawn will wash the soot away
But tonight the flame will stay
Two voices in the damp and cold
Sing the hymn the pumpkin told
Hollow light on midnight porch
Flame holds the dark on prayer and torch
Altos hum where pumpkin glows
Hollow light where nothing goes
Hollow light where nothing goes
Flame catches wind on wood
Hollow light where shadows stood