Brautigan with a twist

Halloween in the pool

There was a pumpkin patch of sorts at the outdoor pool in Brisbane this past weekend. I came in on Friday and was met with the above scene--PUMPKINS everywhere! This well-attended, annual event takes place literally in the pool. It's sounds to be sort of like bobbing for apples, but it's instead diving for pumpkins. I suppose most of these squash float, so diving may not be required. 

Hearing about the event from the pool staff reminded me of a poem by San Francisco* writer Richard Brautigan called Pumpkin Tide. Here it is--

I saw thousands of pumpkins last night
come floating in on the tide,
bumping up against the rocks and
rolling up on the beaches;
it must be Halloween in the sea.

In this case, it was to be Halloween in the pool. 





*Brautigan hailed from the Pacific Northwest, but lived and wrote in San Francisco in the 1960s and 1970s.