The Pumpkin Eater
"Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater,
had a wife and couldn't keep her.
He put her in a pumpkin shell,
and there he kept her very well"
(The nursery rhyme that inspired this sonnet)
The Pumpkin Eater
He thought he loved with heart and mind, and so
his goddess wife he set high in a tower.
He cultured trees and ivy there to grow,
so then the keep became a hidden bower.
Ensuring love’s protection even more,
he made around their secret place a maze.
It wound for miles along the forest’s floor
and led all trespassers in different ways.
A fire, he would consume her, and she’d weep.
Deprived of friends and freedom, she would brood,
then into a depression sank so deep. . .
her love for him could never be renewed.
So Peter lost. He’d kept his wife too well.
His tower of love was but a pumpkin shell.
By Andrea Dietrich
For PD's Metaphoric Poetry Contest
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