“What if Little Bo Peep met the Headless Horseman?”

In the evening dew of Sleepy Hollow’s lane,  
Little Bo Peep wandered, searching again—  
Her lambs had vanished beyond the last turn,  
Beneath pumpkin moonlight, where dreams twist and churn.

She clutched her crook close, and shivered with fright  
For shadows grew longer on that fateful night.  
Beside the old bridge, with willows grown wild,  
A whisper of hooves sent the wind running mild.

Down through the mist rode a horseman, so stark,  
With no head upon shoulders—just silence and dark.  
Yet his cloak billowed wide, and his horse, iron-shod,  
Seemed cut from a legend, half-dream and half-odd.

“Oh Mister,” cried Bo Peep, voice trembling and clear,  
“I search for my lambs—have you seen them near?”  
The rider said nothing, just paused in his flight,  
Yet gently he pointed with lantern of light.

Their shadows combined—the lost girl, the ghost—  
In the hush of the Hollow, grew warmer than most.  
He nodded, then pointed between rocks and moss,  
Where six woolly lambs gathered, confused and at loss.

Bo Peep with a gasp, in joy and delight,  
Thanked the odd horseman who vanished from sight.  
And legends still say, on Halloween eve,  
If you’re searching and frightened, and willing to believe,

You might find a friend in a shadowy spot—  
For headless or lost, all’s not always as it’s thought.  
In Sleepy Hollow’s folds where the brave children creep,  
Remember the Horseman who helped Bo Peep.

Create Your Own Poem | Recent Poems