PUMPKINS FOR PEACE

[I have been spending a lot of time reading all of the Blogblast for Peace entries yesterday

and today. I took a break this afternoon

to drive around getting photos of the after-Hallowe'en pumpkins people put out alongside the roadways to grin at passing motorists. I always so enjoy the sight of them

alongside the highway. They pop up in the most

unexpected places, midway between towns, up on cliffs, at the summit halfway between here and the coast..........

Having recently read Fireblossom's The Resentful Chicken, http://fireblossom-wordgarden.blogspot.com/2010/11/resentful-chicken.html

loving it and finding it hilarious, I must have been  inspired by it because , while I was driving along, I began to think like a pumpkin. This is the result - kinda scary but fun. With apologies to Fireblossom for never being able to reach her level of  writing or humor, but with thanks for showing me how to push back the edges just a little and step somewhat outside the box:)]

We spend so much time

growing

developing ourselves

learning to really Be Pumpkin

to wind up like this??

Just find us

somewhere

to be,

a pumpkin patch

where we'll be safe from

the glazed and crazed

of eye

who come at us

with sharp knives

every October

and call it fun.

Sometimes they even

cackle

while they're doing it

and it really

creeps me out.

Junior! Stop jumping up and down!

You're going to

knock us all

to smithereens!

Sister! Dont poke the baby!

Don't  make me

come over there!

They fry my seeds

-my children!-

in butter

and eat them.

A barbaric species, really.

Whatever happened

to live and let live?

We survive the heat,

the floods,

the over-watering,

the forgetting to water

for what?

To get thrown out with the trash

to be

eaten by bears

at the landfill!

Or left

by the side of the road

-  at least

passing motorists

smile

at us

as they go by.

But we know our days are numbered

till the winter rains smash us into pulp.

There's this one woman

who totally Gets It.

She's starting a movement

to save the pumpkins.

She's a little odd,

but you gotta appreciate

her good intentions.

Peace, out. Till next year.

Hang onto your innards!

If you can!

I've tossed a seed or two

they couldnt get

to ensure

my line continues.

With luck,

the Movement

will be in time

for my progeny.

I'd love to live to see it:

a world that's safe

for pumpkins

and all

humankind.

(Question: why do they call it humanKIND?

Have you seen the way they LOOK

when they come at you with those

knives?)