Eudora Welty's plea to the rodents
Shirley Meneice (Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:11:04 PST)
Your friend is a gem and so is this Ogden Nash-type poem. Thanks for
sharing.
Shirley Meneice, Zone 9 or 10, Monterey, CA, coastal area with almost no
rain for 6 weeks.
-----Original Message-----
From: pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org]
On Behalf Of Jim McKenney
Sent: Friday, January 13, 2012 6:36 PM
To: Pacific Bulb Society
Subject: [pbs] Eudora Welty's plea to the rodents
A friend sent me this during the holidays - I've got so much email that I
only opened it tonight. It put a big smile on my face - some of the rhymes
are as funny as some of the sentiments expressed - did she really pronounce
those words that way?
This is from One Writer's Garden: Eudora Welty's Home Place, page 146.
Squirrel, squirrel, burning bright,
Do not eat my bulbs tonight!
I think it bad and quite insidious
That you should eat my blue tigridias.
Squirrel, Sciurus vulgaris,
Leave to me my small muscaris,
Must you make your midnight snack, mouse,
Of Narcissus Mrs. Backhouse?
When you bite the pure leucojum,
Do you feel no taint of odium?
Must you chew till Kingdom Come
Hippeastrum advenum?
If in your tummy bloomed a lily,
Wouldn't you feel sort of silly?
Do you wish to tease and joke us
When you carry off a crocus?
Must you hang up in your pantries
All my Pink Queen zephyranthes?
Tell me, has it ever been thus,
Squirrels must eat the hyacinthus?
O little rodent,
I wish you wo'dn't!
Jim McKenney