Frankenplot: Jack O'Lantern

One final entry for the Frankenplot Challenge – Again, a huge thank you to SoulFire77 for launching it

Frankenplot: Jack O’Lantern

Tangerine flesh

fashioned

from brimstone,

candlelit grin

alone with my sin

awaiting the first knock.

Will-o’-the-wisp

of ethereal mist,

whispers from below,

ghost lights luring

unsuspecting innocents

from half-lit highways.

*Jack-o’-lantern was originally a synonym for the will-o’-the-wisp before becoming the name for carved pumpkins.

The Celtic story of Stingy Jack goes that a trickster who had conned the Devil on several occasions was refused both heaven and hell on death. Eventually hoping for admission to the latter, instead he was forced to wander the Earth for eternity with a single ember of hellfire in a hollowed turnip.

For some, this explained the lights over bogs that lured travellers from roads and into trouble. This gave Halloween its carved-vegetable tradition when Irish emigrants brought the custom to America.

Image free to use @WikiCommons