Halloween poetry by Norbert Krapf

Have you ever thought how the pumpkins feel when they are used for our eating and decorative pleasure? Norbert Krapf considers this point of view in the following poem from his collections Invisible Presence and Bloodroot (I'm blogging this as I'm drinking a pumpkin latte, so I hope the "Army of Orange" forgives me!):

Army of Orange

We’ve had it, we’re fed up,
get out of our way, we have
joined forces. Today the patch,
tomorrow the whole wide world!
We are the Army of Orange.

No more pies on Turkey Day!
No more soups with nutmeg
and butter. Keep your nasty
knife to yourself, stop cutting
out those toothy grins
& stupid triangular eyes!
Never again will you dare
to roast & salt our seeds
or stick a burning candle
in the middle of our belly.

If you think you can keep on
slinging our slimy guts
into the garbage, Mr. and Mrs.
Homebody, why don’t you just
pucker up and give our bottoms
one great big resounding smack?

Happy Halloween, and if you're in the Indianapolis area today, be sure to stop by the Indianapolis ArtsGarden at 12:15 p.m. to hear Norbert read this poem!