Bursting with excitement to be included in the September 2022 issue of Cricket Media's Spider magazine. Get a copy here.

​ROSE'S SURPRISE
(100 words)
 
Among the graveyard vaults young Rose Bone creeps
(Her skeleton family’s still fast asleep.)
Rose searches for colored props bright as the sun
She wants her Halloween costume to stun!
 
Feathers and flowers and fabric and paint
(If Mama woke up she would probably faint!)
Rose crafts a mask with a smile, wide and red.
Who said, “Dressing up isn’t fun when you’re dead”?
 
She covers her bones in a suit, rainbow bright
Juggling in white gloves she’ll be quite a sight!
The finishing touch is a big scarlet nose...
Now it’s off to the circus for gorgeous Clown Rose!

© Shanah Salter, 2020

For more contest details and to see other entries click here.

THE BOY, HIS DOG, THE WITCH & THE BOG
(200 words)
 
To a sad little town
beside a brown swamp
Moved Vince and his folks
and one-eyed dog, Chomp.
 
Now the townsfolk all knew
what the family did not--
in the swamp lived a witch
with one eye and a pot.
 
The creatures she lured
went into a brew
That she’d stir and she’d slurp
‘til black sky turned to blue.
 
One night Vince awoke
to a yowl most profound.
Grabbing Chomp and a snack,
he rode straight to the sound.
 
Fog was thick on the bog
where the witch held a cat.
It yowled, clawed, and hissed
from above the brew vat.
 
“Drop the cat!” Vince yelled out,
while Chomp gave a growl.
The witch did and spun round,
a fowl one-eyed scowl.
 
But her green eye blinked twice
when she saw the dear dog--
one eye on one eye
in the moonlight lit bog.
 
The dog wagged his tail,
Vince shared his chips.
And as the hag ate…
came an APOCALYPSE!
 
First the swamp disappeared,
so, too, the witch.
Next the fog cleared, revealing--
a tree in a ditch.
 
Kind Vince had transformed
the swamp and the witch!
Soon the town filled with glee
and blooms filled the ditch.

© Shanah Salter, 2020

Above: contest image #6 (courtesy of Unsplash)
For more contest details and to see other entries click here.

COMING SOON!
Pomelo Books has a new children's poetry anthology releasing soon!
HOP TO IT: POEMS TO GET YOU MOVING releases on October 15 and includes a poem by yours truly.
Here's an early link.
More details coming soon!

Check out the amazing (now archived) Kids Imagination Train E-Zine. My poem MAMA PLATYPUS is here.