Eudora Welty's plea to the rodents
Jim McKenney (Fri, 13 Jan 2012 18:36:20 PST)
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