Heads were rolling down the highway in high slat trucks.
I knew it was time to buy you and found you,
The last sphere unscarred and undistorted in the store,
Big as my own head.
It was time too to leave you uncut and full-featured,
Like the grandpa of twenty-five pumpkins in my past,
Khrushchev-cheeked and dwelling on yourself,
Great knee of my childhood.
I plainly thought you would rot.
I remembered the fetor of other pumpkins,
Their blue populations coming out of hiding as if at the end
Of some apocalypse.
I devoted a day to reading up on minor cucurbits:
I learned your dozen names in African
And came home ready to raise or raze you,
Positive of change.
But so far—eternity. I think I would not like
Eternity, after I had used my senses up,
As I've tried with you—fingertips dragging over your world
Pole to pole
Till they go dead like explorers, nostril cilia
Detecting your fragrance more delicate than they—
And my patience. It's Christmas, it's a new year
And I hear
Of a family who's kept you for four ...
You endure like matter manufactured
And indeed your stem seems punched into your orange gathers
Like a button in a mattress.
Shall I give you a room or a shrine? And shall I
Purchase you a mate and family,
When ours is so inadequate, fixed upon your window
Deathbed as we are,
Centered upon a time and birth, new holiday, new friends,
New pumpkins, celebrating when all
That has failed us has passed away.
You have not failed.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
What's New Year? Three days only left for this year to come to an end All turn back to the year from January on to December And make a stock what all have been done so far...! This year we had hottest days and heaviest rains finally With a pause for the new year to start after two days Kindling thoughts on celebration with friends on a fete! Happiest and saddest days have we seen in this year Not only enjoying all pleasures but also all pains in life Giving us the notion that combination of both is life ever! It's only old wine in a new bottle that we taste every-year Sans knowing that the content of life is the same but only The dresses we wear are new and there's nothing new ever! Renewing the year with a new beginning we proceed with yet Another year fresh from January to December with all seasons!