Jack-O’-Lantern



Sometimes, I feel like a Jack-o'-Lantern


I came to life in this world as anyone does, and I was as bright and natural and beautiful as can be.
I was small, colorful, and full of life.

I was so eager to continue to grow and see where life would take me.
 I was then just a pumpkin, a bountiful little squash, but soon, they said, I would become a beautiful Jack-o'-Lantern!
 With each day I grew, each day more colorful and lively than the last. I couldn't wait to see the beauty I could be.


As the time of maturity finally grew near, I was plucked from my life-giving vine and set out to be chosen.
"Whoever gets to choose me will sure make me to be a beautiful Jack-O'-Lantern," I believed!

 
At long last, the moment came where I was picked up and chosen! Away from the farm I went, into a foreign environment of concrete and brick.


But no matter, I would still soon become a beautiful Jack'o'-Lantern! The shiny tools were presented to me.
 I knew that soon, the life would be taken from inside me, but I was not afraid. I knew that would leave room for a new, bright, warm soul to takes its place!


Suddenly, a blade was plunged into me. The blade was drawn all around me and a piece of myself was removed to reveal the life inside me. 
New tools were wielded, and my life, my being, was quickly hollowed out. This life was thrown into the refuse without a second thought.
"But fear not," I thought to myself! "The pain is necessary for the greatness to come!"
A marker eagerly drew out what would become my beauty - "someone is caring for me and will surely make me beautiful!"


Finally, all was ready for me to be shaped. Dull knives sliced into me, sawing out chunks of my being. "The pain is profound, but oh! The reward!"


My being was pulled, scraped, carved. My scraps were tossed aside and discarded.
Piece by piece, I lose myself. I am lighter. Newer. Different.

Someone calls me scary.

"Scary?"


The hands who made me delivered me outside on the concrete; I was given my new soul - "It is not as strong, bright, or warm as I had hoped..."
 I think, as it flickers pitifully in the wind.

So there I waited on the concrete, the sun setting and the temperature falling, with nothing but a faint flicker of light inside my hollow husk to keep my company.

 
Was this what I had looked forward to? Where was the joy? The beauty? The festivity? 


Soon, creatures of all shapes and sizes passed me by, with nothing more than a cursory glance. I wasn't even an after thought.


The monsters are filled with joy, as they seemed to be collecting gifts from those who carved me. All I seemed to collect was flies.


Like the weak little soul now inside of me, my happiness flickered and grew dimmer and dimmer as time went on. A strong gust of wind soon came and extinguished it all together. 
Now I was truly hollow.

 
No more monsters came by after that. The warmth inside me burned out. The silence was deafening. The darkness was maddening.


There I sat on that concrete for quite a time. The light and the dark came and went again and again, but my soul was never rekindled. 
The edges of my wounds began to dry out and curl.

 Without the life inside me, my whole being began to wilt. I slowly shrunk closer and closer to the concrete.


Then, the final darkness came. My color had well and truly faded, and my body was collapsing in on itself. I no longer wished to be hollow. 


A group of monsters appeared. They wielded tools as the first one did, the one who carved me, but these were larger, blunter.


With a single blow, I fall to pieces. The force threw me across the pavement. What little was left of me lay scattered and weak.
There was laughter from the monsters, a brief glimmer of joy from them. "Gross!" one of them remarks.


Gross?


The pieces that are left of me shrivel and shrink to the point of decay. I have no soul. I have no being, I have no purpose. I leave no legacy - I guess I was not important to the monsters here.


Sometimes, I feel like a Jack-o'-Lantern.

About this poem

Just some silly free verse

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Written on November 01, 2020

Submitted on June 28, 2021

Modified on March 05, 2023

3:56 min read
13

Quick analysis:

Scheme A x b x x x x x x b b x b b x x c x x x c x x x A
Characters 4,119
Words 779
Stanzas 24
Stanza Lengths 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 3, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

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    "Jack-O’-Lantern" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/103715/jack-o’-lantern>.

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