Pumpkins for Obama

At the top of Amity Street, the President's Pumpkin Patch at the Pitkin House:



Election Day was subdued downtown, quiet, except that you noticed packs of students arriving in droves by PVTA and foot, throughout the day. Off the bus, and in groups, they strode to the polls at Boltwood. StudentVote.org registered 3000 this year, many first time voters, and they came out this day.

The networks called the election at 11PM. Fireworks sounded, and then roars like one hears when a football game is in town. It went on for four hours. Earlier, as the last hour of voting continued, throngs of young people lined up at Starbucks and Ben & Jerry’s, a warm fall night, sitting around, talking, with coffees and ice creams in hand, having voted. What a day!

I am thrilled to be old enough to remember how far we have come, yet young enough to be part of where are going.

The Red Indian Pipe Society

Red Indian Pipe appeared on the Robert Frost Trail, halfway between Amethyst Brook and Mt. Orient last Sunday. The Emily Dickinson Museum reminds readers:

The Indian Pipe Society ($1,000)

Emily Dickinson called the Indian Pipe “the preferred flower of life.” The painting of Indian Pipes given to her by Mabel Loomis Todd adorns the first edition of her Poems First Series. The Indian Pipe Society ... recognizes individuals and couples who contribute $1,000 or more each fiscal year to the Museum’s operating budget.

Perhaps I should modify my poem:

White (or red) as an Indian Pipe
Red as a Cardinal Flower
Fabulous as a Moon at Noon
February Hour

Citroenella

Citron Citroen of bumblebee'd coat,
Melted at last from winter's white choke,
Buzzes toward summer whose mosquitos and gnats,
Invite citroenella, thwick, thwick, thwick, thwack.

Brutal as a Bumblebee

Camille Paglia on Emily:

The brutality of this belle of Amherst would stop a truck.

-- in Sexual Personae , "Amherst's Madame de Sade", p 623-673.


Just as the beautiful brutality of Canadian snow stops a citron Citroen:



On ice till springtime.

First Bicyclist, Sir!

Cute as a button then, cute as a button now, and ready to be president, tricycling Barack! Back in Iowa, voters have been flocking not only to caucuses but to comedy. In Caucus! The Musical, the Wise family chooses who wins and who loses among politicians who will do anything to get their votes. And to the north in New Hampshire, our neighbors are rolling in the excess with their own musical extravaganza The Primary Primary. What fun!

I do believe that Amherst must have within its serious soul some closet comics of a political bent, capable of composing and producing a musical: "Meeting Town Meeting" I, for one, would be thrilled to support the troupes!