In the vintage Saskatchewan farmhouse where I grew up, a door that looked like every other in the house opened to a stairway to the basement. At the bottom of the stairs was another door to a dark and vacant cell that was once a coal chute. From somewhere I got the idea that that coal chute was inhabited. I scared myself many a time with that thought.
Image: Pixabay
Bear Scare
At the bottom of the stair
in his secret coal chute lair
lives a black and hungry bear.
Fetching eggs or frozen pie
on an errand, do or die
up steep wooden steps I fly.
Feel bear’s breath hot on my back
any moment he’ll attack
when he does, I’ll turn and whack!
At the top the knob I wham
open door and close it. SLAM.
Once again escape bear jam!
© 2017 by Violet Nesdoly (All Rights Reserved)
Image: Pixabay
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This post is linked to Poetry Friday, hosted today by Brenda Harsham at her blog for all things whimsical—Friendly Fairy Tales.
This poem is also joining other poems about frightful things on the October DMC padlet at Michelle Heidenrich Barnes’ blog Today’s Little Ditty. The topic of the challenge this month, posed by Carrie Clickard, is to write a poem about a person, place, or thing that spooked you as a child. Read Michelle’s interview of Carrie and the original challenge post HERE.
Violet Nesdoly / poems 
Carol Baerg
October 27, 2017 at 5:38 am
Remembering similar places and feelings. Thanks for the reminder!
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Violet Nesdoly
October 28, 2017 at 4:42 pm
Thanks, Carol! There’s nothing like an old Saskatchewan farmhouse for scary nooks and crannies, right?
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Michelle Heidenrich Barnes
October 27, 2017 at 7:07 am
Such a great poem, Violet! I’m relieved to know this happened in your imagination and not in reality… I confess, I wasn’t sure, knowing very little about the habits of bears and coal shutes. It does seem like an awfully inviting, den-like place to live!
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Violet Nesdoly
October 28, 2017 at 4:46 pm
Thanks, Michelle. We’d have a lot to worry about if bears actually took a room in the house. They are not the housemates you want! BTW – I’m enjoying the poems in your October padlet!
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Karen Eastlund
October 27, 2017 at 7:39 am
I really enjoyed this, Violet. I think kids often have these kinds of fantasies. Until recently, my grandchildren always needed someone to go with them if sent to the far reaches of the house. Too scary alone!
Thanks!
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Violet Nesdoly
October 28, 2017 at 4:46 pm
Thanks, Karen! It was fun to revisit that old fear, which was very real (though self-inflicted) when I was a kid.
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Donna Smith
October 27, 2017 at 12:50 pm
Wonderful imagination! Our old attic and the basement were to be entered slowly and exited quickly…who knows what lurked there?
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Violet Nesdoly
October 28, 2017 at 4:47 pm
Thanks, Donna. “Lurked” is such a good word to describe the fears of dark scary places!
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lindabaie
October 27, 2017 at 9:02 pm
Wonderful scare poem, Violet and I’m glad twas not true! I’m sitting here reading posts and a mouse just appeared! Our recent freeze and I should have known. I’ve set the one trap I have, now off to the store tomorrow! I previously would have loved your mouse on the stair, but not tonight.
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Violet Nesdoly
October 28, 2017 at 4:49 pm
Thanks, Linda. That is too funny, that a mouse appeared while you’re reading. We had our share of those too.
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maryleehahn
October 28, 2017 at 4:59 am
I don’t remember being frightened of any part of my childhood home, but now, as a full-fledged brave grownup, I’m reluctant to go to close to the sump pump or the dark nook under our basement stairs!
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Violet Nesdoly
October 28, 2017 at 4:49 pm
Thanks, Mary Lee. I think would join you in keeping away from sump pumps. Even the name sounds ominous!
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Jane the Raincity Librarian
October 28, 2017 at 12:55 pm
I’ve never lived in a house with a basement, but I did go through a phase as a child where I always had to check behind shower curtains just in case something was lurking in the bathtub! 🙂
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Violet Nesdoly
October 28, 2017 at 4:52 pm
Thanks, Jane! Yes, I can see checking behind shower curtains, and under beds, and in closets. Best not to get started. I’m good now but leave me alone in a house and my imagination quickly goes into overdrive.
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Tabatha
October 28, 2017 at 2:46 pm
I can imagine that would be scary, Violet! I pictured you whacking the bear with the eggs you had gone to fetch, and it didn’t seem so scary then…
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Violet Nesdoly
October 28, 2017 at 4:53 pm
Thanks, Tabatha. I laughed out loud when I read your comment about whacking that bear with eggs. Probably frozen pie would have been a better choice.
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Brenda Davis Harsham
October 29, 2017 at 8:13 am
The rhymes really work here, evoking the inner child. Rhymes feel like a protection from the bear.
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Keri Collins Lewis
October 29, 2017 at 1:08 pm
This reminded me of the basement monster in the movie “Home Alone” — apparently you are not the only one to have such a childhood experience!
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Kay McGriff (@kaymcgriff)
October 29, 2017 at 3:19 pm
What a fun poem. I think I’m glad I grew up without a dark and dangerous basement with or wiithout coal chutes that might be hiding bears!
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