Sun
Oct 19 2008 9:45am
Please Stop Staring at My Delicious Head

from Off the Top of My Head: The Official Blog of the Headless Horseman

It’s supposed
to be scary,
you know.

But this morning
I rode by a little café,
and it said pumpkin bisque
was their soup of the day.
As I passed, the chef stared
in the creepiest way.

Heaven knows how the crows always find me.
Or the pigeons that fly by but sneak up behind me,
then poke in their heads
to pick seeds through my eyes.
And although I hate pigeons,
I really despise
how the crows go all Hitchcock,
and day turns to night
as they claw and they caw
and they snap and they bite
and then back to the branches
or god knows what place;
and the flapping’s like clapping,
the caws are applause
for my big, orange, delectable face.

And these grandmas
won’t leave me alone.
They surround me and talk
about muffins and bread.
Or they hound me with
piecrusts and poke at my head.
“It’s a good one,” they whisper.
I wish I was dead.

[j/k - Text and illustrations from FRANKENSTEIN TAKES THE CAKE, copyright © 2008 by Adam Rex, posted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.]

11 comments
Alex Bledsoe
1. alexbledsoe
Does anyone remember from, gosh, twenty years ago, when Weird Al Yankovic was on MTV and had John Carradine read from a "children's" book called "The Littlest Pumpkin"? I'd kill for a video of that (well, I'd kill a pumpkin, that is...)
Bridget McGovern
2. BMcGovern
I have no idea why this amuses me as much as it does; maybe I just have a thing for disgruntled pumpkins...

Also, the random rooster posed stoically in the corner of the pigeon-frenzy picture makes me happy.

Excellent use of sinister barnyard fowl.
R O T
3. rogerothornhill
Actually it's the first picture that disturbs me most: I can't see how the pumpkin is going to stay affixed to the collar. My brain is doing all these 1890s detachable collar permutations and I just can't get my head around it (you should pardon the expression). Then I start thinking about whole establishments devoted to gourd haberdashery and habiliments, and that is definitely not a topic I woke up today thinking I would end up contemplating. Apparently, Irving knew architecture but not true foppery. If HH is reading this, please advise.
Sandi Kallas
4. Sandikal
I love the part about the crows going all Hitchcock.
Headless Horseman
5. HeadlessHorseman
What a treat to know you're all so tickled by the routine persecution of yet another Headless American. It is exactly this sort of perverse alacrity that has led to the current toxic political environment in my home state of New York. I've said it before and I'll say it again now: No on Proposition 7.

rogerothornhill–Really? It's my posture that's keeping you up at night? Not, say, the question of how a Hessian with just one day left until retirement can take a cannonball to the head and still run amok for the next fifty years like a common barnyard chicken? Albeit a horse-riding, murderous barnyard chicken?

Anyway, the answer to your question is hairpins.
R O T
6. rogerothornhill
Thank you, sir, for the clarification on all points. I had no idea you were the Roger Murtaugh of the Rebellion--of higher rank, of course, but I believe the analogy still holds (much like the hairpins).
Jeanie W
7. Jeanie W
What a hoot! Thanks for sharing.
Jeanie W
8. Mongo
Isn't there a way to preserve pumpkins, now? Some kind of flash-freeze-dried, plasticized, fill-up-the-spaces-between-the-fibers with wax, or Grunk-a-lunga resin, or some sort of thing.

That might get those pesky humans and birds off your back. Head. You know. 'Cause the way they're looking at you is -- well, scary.
Steven Gould
9. StevenGould
From Bowfinger:

"Do you like Smashing Pumpkins?"

"I love doing that!"
R O T
10. rogerothornhill
Billy Corgan--Pumpkin Enemy Number One. (He's just jealous that the gourds look better without hair.)
Headless Horseman
11. HeadlessHorseman
There are indeed ways to preserve a pumpkin, Mongo, and I appreciate your interest. I've already found an answer with which I'm satisfied–look for it here in the coming weeks.

"Pumpkin Enemy Number One." Hee.

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