Skip to content
Answering Your Questions About Reactor: Right here.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter. Everything in one handy email.
When one looks in the box, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the cat.

Reactor

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

 

It’s been sagging,
slowly browning,
and it looks
just like I’m frowning.
On the stem I’ve pinned
some paper pines—
they help the stink,
I think.

But these trees
can’t hide the funk in-
side this sad and
sunken punkin.
Time to ride my horse
and park it
at the Sleepy Hollow Market.

But! Too late
do I remember
It’s the first day
of November,
and the stock boy
at the store
Says, “There’s no
pumpkins anymore.”
So, now he delves
into the shelves
to see what sort
of fruit might suit.

Alas, I hate the color of the lime.
The orange is orange but doesn’t rhyme.
The kiwi is too peewee—there’s no space to carve a face.

And it seems that I’ve forgotten:
Every fruit, in time, goes rotten.
Every gourd, ignored, will—
Wait, what’s this?
What has the stock boy gotten?

Perfect! Bold,
But not too drastic.
When they ask,
“Paper or plastic?”
I just shake my headless head
and say I’ll wear it home instead:

a can of never-spoiling,
always chilling,
EasyPie-brand
pumpkin filling.


[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.]

About the Author

About Author Mobile

Headless Horseman

Author

Learn More About
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
4 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments