Thump, it landed on the table
From the tiny hands of little Mable
Paper crinkled underneath
To catch the drips that fall beneath

Just hours before the pumpkin lay
On a soft bed of sweet smelling hay
In a pumpkin patch not far away

But now little Mable giggled with glee
Sketching lines
For pumpkin surgery

It was a sobering, haunting laugh
As the blade came down with Mable’s laugh
The pumpkin’s fated epitaph

The irony of its fateful doom
Carved, gutted
Its own hollow tomb

Sawing, sawing, sawing through scalp
Digging, scooping, tearing guts out

Triangle eyes
Triangular nose
Triangle teeth, and triangular bow.
CAN SHE NOT THINK OF ANY OTHER SHAPES IN THE GEOMETRIC SYSTEM?!
Ahh. Crescent ears.

A flick of a match
Quick blaze of the torch
Plunged in its belly
Set on the front porch.

Emily M.

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Jamie Mae skipped down the street.
At a gate, she stopped to greet
a scarecrow with a burlap head.
The scarecrow winked and waved, and said:
   The pumpkins in the patch are growing!
   Can you feel a cold wind blowing?
Jamie laughed and skipped away.
“I don’t believe a word you say!
I see the vines, and they are green,
But not a pumpkin can be seen!
The sun is hot, it’s summer here!
Maybe summer lasts all year!”

Jamie Mae skipped down the street.
At a gate, she stopped to greet
a scarecrow with a burlap head.
The scarecrow winked and waved, and said:
   The pumpkins in the patch are growing!
   Can you feel a cold wind blowing?
Jamie laughed and skipped away
“I don’t believe a word you say!
Yellow flowers everywhere,
But not a pumpkin anywhere!
The sun is warm, it’s summer here!
Maybe summer lasts all year!”

Jamie Mae skipped down the street.
At a gate, she stopped to greet
a scarecrow with a burlap head.
The scarecrow winked and waved, and said:
   The pumpkins in the patch are growing!
   Can you feel a cold wind blowing?
Jamie wasn’t quite so sure.
A cool breeze began to stir.
Still, she said: “I disagree.
Those can’t be pumpkins that you see!
They’re green and small. I think it’s clear
That summertime will last all year!”

Jamie Mae skipped down the street.
At a gate, she stopped to greet
a scarecrow with a burlap head.
The scarecrow winked and waved, and said:
   The pumpkins in the patch are growing!
   Can you feel a cold wind blowing?
Jamie stopped, and looking down,
said: “Scarecrow, I believe you now.
A chilly wind is in the air,
and there are pumpkins everywhere!
Pumpkins short and pumpkins tall—
Summer must have turned to fall!”

Emily H

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I had a little pumpkin
As slippery as can be!
I tried to take him to the house
But he slipped up in a tree!

I called out to my pumpkin
“Hey you, get down here!”
But he just winked at me
Then jumped onto a deer!

He rode that deer into the woods
No way that I could catch it
So I sat down and cried
Till I heard the pumpkin hit

It was an awful, sickening splat
I guessed he hit a tree
I jumped and ran into the woods
To see what I could see

Now it was my pumpkins’ turn to cry
What remained of him, at least
But I didn’t say ‘I told you so’
For riding that foul beast

I picked up my poor pumpkin
Smashed and battered, leaking goop
And brought him back up to the house
To set him there upon my stoop

But now I have a problem
And I haven’t got the time
Because everyone thinks his sorry state
Is not HIS fault, but mine!

Cedar

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Freckle-faced Chad

Was a sweet little lad
Who, to his mother’s alarm,
Fancied he’d open a farm
When once he’d grown tall
Like his father named Paul
But he was sadly ignorant
Of the knowledge of how to plant
Which of course is the reason
This idea was not pleasin’
To Chad’s dear mother
Or anyone other
Than Chad himself
Who had a small shelf
Of packets of seeds
That he knew he must needs
To put in the ground
If his intention was sound
So on a Monday in June
Which was none too soon
He went out to his shelf
And he helped himself
To the packet marked “pumpkin”
Like a right country bumpkin
And he walked to the field
And in his trousers he kneeled
On the fresh-tilled earth
That would soon give birth
To the autumnal vine
“They will all be mine!”
Thought the optimistic Chad
Who was only too glad
When a few weeks hence
He saw from the fence
Some green poking through
As the summer winds blew
And a few weeks more
The green was engorged
To a full-fledged plant
Chad said “No I can’t
Wait for this squash
So I’ll go take a wash
While I dream of pie
That I’ll make by-and-by”
So time went on
And the plant grew strong
‘Til at last the thing
Burst from the ring
Of leaves and stem
There were several of them
———timer———–
All firm and green
And lovely to be seen
Then turning to yellow
They began to mellow
To a color not red
Though it could be said
They were just a hue lighter
Than the red of the spider
Who lived on the plant
Feeding on ants
(That’s not part of our story
It was getting quite gory)

Elisa

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The challenge: Write a rhyming poem about a pumpkin.

15 minutes

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