Boy With Pumpkin
by Jeanne C. Howes in Connecticut

He carries in the pumpkin from the vine
triumphantly and plumps it on display --
a trophy of his harvest skill, a fine
example of the summer’s work. Hooray!
We gather round to share his joy. Behold
the ample ripeness of a vegetable,
an amber globe meridianed in gold,
a saffron melon with a rippled shell.

There have been other pumpkins of renown --
in Mother Goose, in Cindarella’s tale,
Thanksgiving pies or Jack-o-lantern’s frown --
But this reality makes legends pale;
his own fat sun grown in a garden patch,
O golden egg where myths and fables hatch!