A bloody handprint on a windowpane
Beneath which, blood-scrawled letters spell Beware.
Across the street, a pumpkin with straw hair
Gathers his seedy thoughts like Harvest grain.
Then, like an evening shadow, Halloween
Spreads darkness down the block, and black despair.
The bloody handprint on the windowpane
And blood-scrawled letters crying out Beware
Now seem a portent to the son of Cain
Who walks past where the dumb beasts kneel in prayer
A few doors down and sees the manger where
Hosannas rose, then stone, where, sun or rain,
His blood, His hand, adorn each windowpane.
— Paul Lake
Image by Pixabay. Image cropped.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
A Muslim Answer to Muslim Immigration
Modern America worships at the altar of youth and eagerly tracks in polls and market research its…
New Founders Wanted
It’s now 250 years since America declared her independence and embarked on the experiment of fashioning a…
Forget Odysseus. Aeneas Is the True American Hero.
Who is our Odysseus? Or more precisely, who is the most Odyssean hero of American film? Matt…
