Halloween Thriller

Darkness falls across the land
The midnight hour is close at hand
Creatures crawl in search of blood
To terrorize y’alls neighborhood

The foulest stench is in the air
The funk of forty thousand years
And grizzly ghouls from every tomb
Are closing in to seal your doom

And though you fight to stay alive
Your body starts to shiver
For no mere mortal can resist
The evil of the thriller

Spent for Illustration Friday

She spent time in her garden!

There once was an old woman who possessed a remarkable “green thumb.” Flowers bloomed, trees bore fruit, the  grass was always green on her small half an acre lot…. and yet the land that surrounded her oasis was barren, dry and void of life. The only interruption in the landscape was the lifeless and cumbersome machinery poised to devour the small Eden she had tenderly cared for.

The man who spearheaded the conspiracy, had many times been dismissed. In his gluttony, he conceived a plan to torture the woman by detaching a part her anatomy each time she denied him access to her property. The intent was not to kill, but to terrify.

The first surprise encounter resulted in the loss of a thumb.

When the ambulance arrived to hasten the woman to the hospital for medical treatment, they found her drenched in blood still tending her garden amidst her great pain. Sadly, the woman died en route to the hospital.

While the villain in this evil ambush remained anxious about the woman’s death, the  glee in his victory absorbed any thoughts of humanity he  had left.

As he surveyed his newly acquired property, he became aware of a  sound.  A familiar mumbling, a quiet sing song voice of adoration. As he moved into the garden he found her… busily  tending to herself in the garden. “You see” she said  “Everything I touch grows…. even me ……..”

Adapted from a story first shown on the television series “The Night Gallery

Ruby Rue

Ruby Rue makes magnificent stew.
Though her secret ingredient nobody knew
Onions and turnips and celery root
Frog legs and toenails and of course eye of newt
Dinner at Ruby’s became all the rage
Her name dropped at parties, the society page
The line for a table became a quite joke
But Ruby was cordial as she pinched and she poked
All things have an ending, just as Ruby feared
The crowds had soon dwindled, her guests disappeared.
“Table for one,” whispered poor Ruby Rue
It’s hard to keep friends when they’re on the menu
Poem and artwork by Roberta Baird

Illustration Friday ~ Racing


Hazel always lived by the adage that “Life is short and time is fleeting.”

And… when she took up motor cross, all of her friends back at Shady Acres Retirement Center thought she was a few pecans short of a fruitcake….

that is until she won first place in the Senior’s Division!!

When I saw the theme “racing” I brought this little charmer of a lady back from the vault.
She seemed to fit so perfectly and after all, it’s always good to be reminded to stay young at  heart!