The Pumpkin Sprite by KA Opperman

The pumpkin sprite alights from gourd to gourd:
beneath Autumn’s amethyst moon grown huge
she plumpens the pulp & swells seeds in horde,
subtle spirit of season’s subterfuge.
For comes soon a boreal howl of winds,
corn hewn to bare stubble, grain threshed from stalk –
pumpkins flush ember-like each fulsome rind
as fair Fall turns, key to bleak Winter’s lock.
Yet – she flutters careless on vesperal airs,
all unseen save from vision’s utmost edge:
kissing each of her orange charges with care,
dreaming away long gold days ‘mid the sedge.

Vining coils entwine to caress her pale skin:
lamenting her wail should harvest-time begin,
trembling fey of delight, offspring of Gwyn –
night aglow with her children’s carven grins.

[Scott J. Couturier is a writer of the grotesque, pagan, & darkly fantastic. His poetry & prose began appearing in literary journals & anthologies in 2017 – venues he has contributed to include The Audient Void, Spectral Realms, Eternal Haunted Summer, Hinnom Magazine, & Weirdbook (forthcoming). His fiction has been repeatedly featured in the Test Patterns & Pulps anthologies from Planet X Publications. More of KA Opperman’s artwork can be found here.]