Pumpkin People

Pumpkin People is a Halloween poem by John Ridland about strange creatures that hide inside your Jack-O-Lantern.

The Pumpkin People camp inside
Your Jack-o’-lantern’s pumpkin hide,
Though you won’t find them much about
Unitl you scoop the center out-
The seeds and all that stringy stuff.
Make sure you scrape it clean enough
And neatly carve eyes, ears, and nose,
And, carefully, the teeth in rows,

Since that’s where Pumpkin People enter
To set up camp right in the center.
Around the brightly gleaming candle,
Which as you know’s too hot to handle,
They toast marshmallows on long forks,
Pull sparkling-apple-cider corks,
And stuff themselves with trick or treats-
The same that everybody eats-

Until their belts are stretched and groaning
(Just listen hard, you’ll hear them moaning).
There while your Jack-o’-lantern glows
Through eyes and teeth and ears and nose,
The Pumpkin People loll inside.
You’ll almost see them where they hide
Between the flame’s flash and its ficker;
Look quickly!- Nope, they’ve scrambled quicker.

But when the candle stub is snuffed,
The Pumpkin People, crammed and stuffed
With sweets to hold them for a year,
And smiling still from ear to ear,
Roll round the floor and out the mouth
And far away-North, East, West, South-
Until next Halloween rolls round
When once again they won’t be found.