Typewriter Rodeo: Ode to the Perfect Summer Watermelon

Each week, the Standard reaches out to Austin’s Typewriter Rodeo for a custom poem on Texas topics.

By Jodi EgertonJune 30, 2017 11:16 am,

It’s finally high watermelon season in Texas. Lots of folks are probably planning to ice down a juicy melon, and crack it open as part of an Independence Day celebration.

Ode to the Perfect Summer Watermelon

I have thumped your green rind

     Listening (as if I had any idea of what I’m

                                             listening for…

                                                    Oh, I purely do not)

But!

You sound so sweet

      My perfect treat

             Crisp and cold and red as a beet

Crack you open, peek inside

      Majestic vine-ripened delight

I don’t even need a knife

          Just a melon-baller will suffice

Here’s to summer’s homegrown crop

          Spit those seeds so the fun doesn’t stop

                 I’ll enjoy that melon starting at dawn

                        And wait for the new vines to sprout

                               across my seed-spitted lawn

Produced by Laura Rice.