A Variety of Christian PUmpkins
By Megan McDermott
Christian Plush Pumpkins – $19.99
Christian Pumpkin Crinkle Tissue Paper Craft Kit – $9.99
Christians Are Like Pumpkins Sign Craft Kit – $9.69
Pin the Cross on the Pumpkin Halloween Game – $4.89
Christian Pumpkin Keychains – $3.97
Christian Pumpkin Bowling Game – $12.49
And more.
There is no story I’ve ever learned
about Jesus and the pumpkin patch.
He cursed fig trees, plucked wheat,
used mustard seed as metaphor,
called himself bread, created
wine, but nothing pumpkin.
If there are Christian pumpkins,
are there also Buddhist ones
and Sihk and Muslim and Jewish
and Hindu and Bahai ones?
Atheist and agnostic pumpkins?
Some that are spiritual but not religious?
How does the Christian pumpkin
shows its Christian-ness?
According to the pictures,
pumpkins communicate faith
through carved crosses,
glowing outwards from a candle
placed in its emptied body.
Conceding the possibility
of its existence, let me ask:
can a Christian pumpkin ever
just be whole? Unmarred,
uninterrupted orange?
Not standing out, but just
a pumpkin among pumpkins,
doing pumpkin-hood well?
A pumpkin not lit for our
benefit, but somehow alight
for its own brethren, giving
off some gourdian version
of mercy and praise?
A pumpkin’s testimony, something like this:
I took in the sun and I grew,
just like he asked me to.
Megan McDermott is an Episcopal priest and poet living in Western Massachusetts. In 2018, she graduated from Yale Divinity School with a Masters of Divinity degree; she also earned a certificate from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, an interdisciplinary program dedicated to religion and the arts. Megan first studied creative writing and religion together as an undergraduate at Susquehanna University. Her poetry has been published or is forthcoming in a number of publications, including The Christian Century, The Cresset, Relief, Rock & Sling, The Windhover, Amethyst Review, and Psaltery & Lyre.
