Haunting Aimlessly

The antiquities museum is bereft
once all the visitors have left,

until October moonlight breaks
the darkness, shaking halls awake.

He sits upon a muzzle-less horse,
the rider’s lost his head of course.

He cannot ride, dismount or stand,
he has no legs, feet, arms or hands.

Moon-bathed they start to come alive,
horse and rider spectrally strive

to canter into the museum’s gloom —
instead they drift from room to room.

A shimmer of marble, moonbeam kissed,
the headless rider can’t resist

dogging the night watchman’s route,
a ghostly shadow — what a hoot!

But when the moon has gone to bed,
the horse rider without a head

lets his noseless horse sniff his way
back to the stand for another day.

Kim M. Russell, 14th October 2025

Marble statuette of a horseman from the middle of the 4th century BC, Archaeological
Museum Pella, found on Wikipedia commons

It’s Tuesday, mid-October and, at the dVerse Poets Pub, we are turning to the supernatural for this week’s Poetics with Merril.

She tells us about a month-long ekphrastic ‘Folktober’ challenge hosted by Paul Brookes, in which, one day, he featured three images of the headless horseman from various parts of the world.

Merril would like us to write poems about some version of the headless horseman, basing them on one of the folktales or creating our own tales or urban legends. Perhaps our creations ride a camel, a donkey, or a motorcycle. She wants to know why it’s without a head, where it might be seen; and what it does. It can be scary, funny, lighthearted, or full of deeper meaning. She has even included some images to inspire us.

I’m late posting as we’ve been to the theatre in Great Yarmouth for ghost stories by candlelight.

35 thoughts on “Haunting Aimlessly”

    1. Thank you so much. My poem was a little tongue in cheek. The ghost stories by candlelight were modern ones, Merril, acted out by only two actors, with lots of effects, in the oldest remaining Victorian theatre in Great Yarmouth. I’m expecting a new book of ghost stories to be delivered soon.

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      1. You’re welcome, Kim!

        Oh, that sounds fun. The theater itself sounds cool, too. I bet there have been some ghost sightings there! I remember now you’ve shared several BBC ghost stories on FB.

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  2. This is gorgeously rendered, Kim! I love that you wrote an ekphrastic headless horseman poem 😍 especially this part; “A shimmer of marble, moonbeam kissed, the headless rider can’t resist.” ❤️❤️

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