Billy Hargrove accepted a midnight dare
from his rowdy teenage friends
brothers Alex and Michael Simms
spend an hour in Greenhill Cemetery
in the city they lived in, Greensboro, NC
beginning at the witching hour, 12 am
Billy a badass from birth
and a nonbeliever in foolish things
snunk into the cemetery minutes before 12 am
sat down with his back resting on a headstone
where Lucreatia Burns, a witch when she lived,
was buried under the headstone since 1942
an hour past and Billy got up and left
laughed when he saw his friends
sitting in their cars outside the cemetery
and pumped his fist in the air triumphantly
a moment later, blood poured out of
shocked Billy’s eyes, ears and mouth
and he was lifted and shaken in the air
by a cackling insanely strong, invisible force
that tore his shaking body apart
and … cursed … badass Billy Hargrove was no more.
Bob Boyd