Season's Sneezin's

I can't believe I didn't publish this silly poem to this blog last year when I wrote it! One folkloric detail that you might not know is the belief that the faeries were known to use stems of ragwort (locally ragweed) as horses to fly around with. In anticipation of the "cold" front coming this weekend, please enjoy:

Season's Sneezin's

achoo!
(bless you!)
atCHOO!
(bless you!)
AT-CHOOOOO!
(bless you!)

is all i ever know about this season
'cause when winds of change blow summer into fall
those winds set my nose to sneezin' !

when day's as long as equals night
you count on me a horrible sight
leaf drop and nose drip
stuffy head eyes of red!
a lovely season, if it was not
for the gallons and gallons and gallons of snot!

what enemy mine, what foe is this?
to assault my sweet autumnal bliss?

now there they go, my nemeses,
riding out upon the breeze
that indomitable species
the ragweed.

ragweed it's true may be nothing to you
useless to men except for the green
made from record sales of antihistamine
but according to legend and according to lore
the faeries knew what ragweed is for...
the fae, they say hurray!
grab a ragweed stalk so as not to walk
leap upon quick and give it a kick
now that's no inanimate stick
nor leafy weed, but now a faery steed!
they can ride into the air
with devil-may-care

they go where they please,
i stay here and sneeze.

who knew that these airy faerie horse's droppings
would cause so many miserable nose stoppings
or that as they fly by it would so tickle the eye
now we wonder if they do it for sport?
faeries snicker while humans snort
we blow our noses while they cavort

or perhaps it's revenge, they demand ablutions
for our own iron horses' exhaust pollutions
and it's true that where the ragweed grows
is where the plastic grocery bag blows
and auto runoff down creek flows

we wonder thus if we made peace
with faery, creeks, land, and trees
would the fae forgo their assault,
their horse born jousting at you?
then in the breezy season of fall
we'd no more hear achoo! at-choo!


copywrite princess poysen ivieee 2004