103019c

carving anger
or joy into the pumpkin
seeds for the toasting

082519d

Orange You Glad

We have carved this jack-o'-lantern before

it keeps coming back from the compost pile

mouthing off about how great it is

each time claiming to be the second coming

of something

threatens to hate us

till the cows come home

or till we elect it

to higher office

we have been here before

but last time

it was someone else's pumpkin

041619b

Jack-o'-Lantern


The natives grow on vines,
slowly,
the head appears first,of course,
and it takes years before they mature and drop off,
dehisce, to give it the technical term,
too bad we learned all this
the day after Halloween.

102017c

Gender equality had finally reached jack-o'-lanterns (which fortunately is a gender-neutral name). it was quickly discovered that not even other jack-o'-lanterns could tell jack-o'-lantern gender. Long eyelash slits proved an unreliable clue, for instance. Eventually, they just had to carve "M" and "F" on the backs of their heads.