subtropic

look down on misty clouds close to the shore

where mystery proclaims that nothing's clear

though past the age where monsters might appear

you aren't yet sure you truly know the score

what might crawl out and scare you to the core

or fall quite quickly from the cloudy air

and steal your heart before you are aware

you cannot tell you have not passed the door

now in this region there are laughing folk

whose task has been to load your head with words

apotropaic and triumphant both

enough to tell the horror from the joke

or scare the rats and the small hungry birds

away from plants that need their urgent growth