The Sad Pumpkin

 Once upon a time, there was a pumpkin plant, beautiful, vibrant and green. She reached her tendrils out far and wide, welcoming the sun every morning, and mourning it's loss at night. She slowly started forming flowers, which bees came from far and wide to enjoy. And slowly those flowers wilted, giving way to tiny fruit.

The fruit grew bigger, fuller, and slowly it's colour changed from green to a deep, beautiful orange.

The plant was proud of her creation, the pumpkin gloried in its burnished exterior. The sun reflected off it, warming it, and turning it an even deeper orange. 

Then without warning, one cold morning, just as the sun's rays were peeking over the horizon, a man came through the field, in his hands, a sharp knife.

The pumpkin felt the pain as it was severed from the plant that had given it life. 

The pumpkin was tossed onto a pile of other pumpkins that had suffered the same fate, and then, they were loaded into a truck.

Eventually they were taken to a supermarket, put on display while people tapped, knocked, poked, and prodded, finding weak spots, or imperfections. The artificial lights were harsh, the noise was deafening... 

Then, someone picked up the pumpkin, and didn't put it down. It was separated from it's friends, and taken into the unknown. 

Eventually, at the end of the road, the pumpkin was put on a table, with instruments of torture laid out in a neat row. Three knives, and a spoon.

The work was slow, methodical, brutal, and unrelenting. It's skin was pierced, removed, punctured and carved into grotesque shapes.

It's insides removed slowly by the spoonful, and then, in impatience, hands reached in and tore them out.

The pumpkin felt every bite, every slice, every rip and tear, until it felt nothing at all.

A candle was placed inside its hollow heart, burning in mockery of the life it once had, that was ripped away.

It's smiling face a mockery of the peace it once knew. 

And there, for a brief time, the pumpkin sat, smiling through the pain, heart burning through its mutilated skin... Until the end of All Hallows Eve. 

(inspired by talks about pumpkins during the Thanksgiving event. Though written about Halloween)