Be Polite

Be Polite
Halloween night,
We went out alone,
Just four naive girls,
To explore on our own.
But soon I saw him standing there,
His tattered clothing,
Bright red hair.
White makeup piled to cover his face,
I looked to my friends as we picked up the pace.
He came to us,
Spoke to us,
Grin on his face,
And I knew that he wished for a wrongful embrace.
He asked us our names,
What candies we favored,
I felt at once that this man was of danger.
I wasn’t paranoid,
No, it was something much deeper,
From his head to his toes,
This clown was a creeper.
A lone middle aged man giving young girls attention,
I could sense it at once,
He had nasty intentions.
“Come on, let’s go,”
I said in a rush,
But I was met with a terrible, ignorant hush.
“He’s just being nice, no need to be rude.”
And I thought for a moment I had misconstrued.
But just to be safe we did cross the street,
Still behind us he shuffled along the concrete,
“Surely this must all be a mistake”
So we crossed and we turned ‘til we started to ache.
Every step,
Every house,
He was always behind us,
A cat and a mouse,
He knew where to find us.
We hurried,
He scurried,
The wind froze my face,
My heartbeat sped up,
At the fate of the chase.
But all the while my friends were afraid to be mean,
They refused my pleas for someone to intervene.
Finally I knew I must get assistance,
I knocked on a door with pounding persistence.
And while I spoke and begged for protection,
He crouched in their bushes with tacit objection.
But before they did more,
He came to the door,
“There’s no need to bother,
“You see, I’m their father.”
We were senseless,
Defenseless,
I wanted to scream.
But again,
My friends said we must not cause a scene.
As his dark eyes pierced through the darker night,
I wondered, “At what cost must girls be polite?”