Pumpkin: 1979_Pencil_Drawing1 by Carol Hershey

8/19/08_1979_Pencil_Drawing1_ Poem by Betina Hershey Russo

He rides his magic pumpkin
Through brooding, maroon skies.
Strings of lights illuminate
The eagerness in his eyes.
The shiny orange exterior
Accents his golden suit
As he flies so high and easily
In his pulpy and peppered fruit.

He suspects the sky has furrowed
Its dark and cloudy brow
From a slight misunderstanding
Over where he should be now:
Down among the cornfields
Sweating all day long
While the skies around him listen
To his overly anguished song.

“Well, today is different
And you’ll have to come ‘round
When I jangle my bells
And share what I’ve found!
Magic! PURE magic
And shimmering, beautiful dreams!
I’ll live in my pumpkin forever
Though jealousy intervenes!”

Well, the sky, it roared and rumbled
And the blackness was like despair
Til those brows, they finally lifted,
And the sunbeams, they split the air:
With a sparkling milky way
And the universe as his choir,
He soars through the sky forever
With reality bursting on fire.