The gourd tradition on Thanksgiving
\nwas passed down from dead to living.
\nGourds were always on the table,
\nin the hut, the barn, the stable.
\nThe fourth magi brought a gourd,
\nnever made it to the lord.
\nGourds have a great history.
\nWhy is still a mystery.
\nMaybe when the gourds are gone
\ncomes a time when swords are drawn.
\nBut when there are gourds aplenty,
\nwe should think of twenty-twenty.
\nSeen our share of gourds with bumps,
\nelongated\u00a0humpty humps,
\ngourds with stripes and pumpkins blue,
\ntwisted gourds from Bonzai Two.
\nGourds in every market stand,
\non the beaches, in the sand.
\nGourds with altered DNA.
\nSome can even speak, they say.
\n“No more gourds,” we scream to God.
\n“They’re morphing into something odd.”
\nArisen in the street, new lords,
\ndogma spouting angry gourds.
\n“You’ll not squash us any more!
\nWe’re not the gourds we were before.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The gourd tradition on Thanksgiving was passed down from dead to living. Gourds were always on the table, in the hut, the barn, the stable. The fourth magi brought a gourd, never made it to the lord. Gourds have a great history. Why is still a mystery. Maybe when the gourds are gone comes a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poem-2"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2776,"url":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/?p=2776","url_meta":{"origin":2265,"position":0},"title":"American Gourd Society","author":"Rick Young","date":"November 25, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"\"When the gourds are gone...\" is when the swords are drawn. But when there's gourds aplenty, we think of twenty-twenty. We've had our share of gourds with bumps, elongated humpty humps, gourds with stripes and pumpkins blue, twisted gourds from Bonzai Two. \"No more gourds,\" we scream to God. \"They're\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Poem"","block_context":{"text":"Poem","link":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/?cat=16"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2718,"url":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/?p=2718","url_meta":{"origin":2265,"position":1},"title":"Rat Tales","author":"Rick Young","date":"August 8, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"A church full of rats in elegant hats were ready to pray to their lord. The high priest of vermin always gave his sermon from inside a hollowed-out gourd. They sang of great scraps and afternoon naps and filled every one of the pews. The high priest did squeak, with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Poem"","block_context":{"text":"Poem","link":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/?cat=16"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2307,"url":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/?p=2307","url_meta":{"origin":2265,"position":2},"title":"New Year’s Delay","author":"Rick Young","date":"December 31, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"This new year's eve, there's no reprieve from ghosts of old years past. The orange pall which cloaked\u00a0us all now seems that it will last. It needs another twenty days to dissipate its\u00a0frisson, and then another several months to put that pall in prison. There'll be no horns or party\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Poem"","block_context":{"text":"Poem","link":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/?cat=16"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":351,"url":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/?p=351","url_meta":{"origin":2265,"position":3},"title":"Baseball Birthdays: March twenty-second","author":"Rick Young","date":"March 22, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Ramon Martinez always said brother Pedro was better. He was no slouch himself, had twenty wins and a no-hitter. Glenallen Hill played outfield flies as if they all were sliders. He may have used some steroids and was quite afraid of spiders. Dick Ellsworth once won twenty-two games and played\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Poem"","block_context":{"text":"Poem","link":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/?cat=16"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2636,"url":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/?p=2636","url_meta":{"origin":2265,"position":4},"title":"Twenty Twenty Won","author":"Rick Young","date":"December 31, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Biden won because he cheated. That is what the loser bleated. Hugo Chavez changed the vote. (All while he was dead, we note.) Insurrection\u00a0in D.C. hoped to steal a victory, \"Hang Mike Pence,\" their battle cry. He dodged the rope and didn't die. As the mob fought with the police,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Poem"","block_context":{"text":"Poem","link":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/?cat=16"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1484,"url":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/?p=1484","url_meta":{"origin":2265,"position":5},"title":"MMXX","author":"Rick Young","date":"December 31, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Twenty twenty could be our last time through the rotation; \"E Pluribus Whatever Crimes,\" the motto of the nation. To think back how we stole this land and built it up to rockets. Our time is but a one-night stand, small change in cosmos pockets. And now we're down to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Obit"","block_context":{"text":"Obit","link":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/?cat=35"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2265"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2278,"href":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2265\/revisions\/2278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}