Anti-Ode to Halloween

By Jasia, Year 8

Thou art a villainous wasteful bugbear Halloween!
You come every October, an annoying routine.
You like to scare children I see…
so why do people like thee?
Everyone knows it, but you get away,
disguising your darkness, as an innocent holiday.
Trick or Treat! On the street!
Dress like a ghost using a sheet,
so into the home, some make a retreat
turn off lights, try to be discreet.
Into the home, lie and wait,
Doorbell rings! Don’t they know it’s late?
Close the curtains, lock the gate,
until it’s over…at half past eight.
Everywhere I go, there you are,
movies, costumes, decorations and chocolate bars.
You may have a good advertising promo,
that gives lots of people FOMO!
It’s not the community you assist,
I know it’s the truth, you twit!
Oh Halloween, I wish you didn’t exist.

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This ‘Anti-Ode’ to Halloween was written as part of Story Factory’s Odes and Anti-Odes workshop, run via Story Factory Digital, where students had the opportunity join a live, online workshop and both rant and celebrate! Students learnt about the form, language features and history of the ode, as well as some useful strategies for idea generating, using mentor texts and beginning a draft.

Story Factory Digital is the newest arm of Story Factory’s programs, and partners with schools right across Australia. Offering free, live, video workshops, we work with metro, regional, rural and remote primary and high schools, and alternative educational communities, as well as public and independent schools, homeschools, schools for students with disability and additional needs, and juvenile justice schools.We are funded to offer free workshops to schools with an ICSEA below 1000, and/or significant numbers of students who are Indigenous or from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse backgrounds.