Saturday, October 31, 2015

Painted Paris Pumpkin



photo by Jean O'Neil
                                                                              


A grocer on Rue du Commerce
honors Halloween by painting
a clown face on a pumpkin.

No jack o’ lantern to scald
the minds of tiny children,
this creature’s winsome black gaze,

red blob nose, lolling tongue
look harmless as if lounging
in a textured suburban garden.

The grocer wants twenty Euros
for his artwork. The day inclines
toward the west, the overcast

thick as old-fashioned topcoats.
I crossed the Atlantic in one stride
to visit on your native soil,

but the pumpkin has locked my gaze,
so I have to buy and tote it
like the head of the headless horseman

to a rendezvous with horror
France hasn’t seen since the Forties.
It won’t perform that American

jack o’ lantern act, but maybe
the red tongue will lap and slobber
on some gray woman rushing home

with a string bag of fresh vegetables.
This freshest vegetable of all
will kindle her like puberty;

and if she steadies herself enough,
stifles the urge to call the police,
she’ll rush home to her family

and jolt them with slathers of kisses.
I hope you also will endure
the pumpkin’s friendly drooling                                 

and inspire yourself to respond
with earthen passion ripe enough
to brace us both through winter.

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