Typewriter Rodeo: The Thieves Of Delight

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

By David FruchterOctober 4, 2019 1:18 pm,

The last crops of the season are being plucked from gardens across Texas — at least if human gardeners can get to them before the other creatures! That’s the inspiration for this Typewriter Rodeo poem.

The Thieves of Delight

figs, tomatoes

melons and squash

all ripening upon 

the vine

avidly waiting

anticipating

the fruits of our garden

so fine

but the birds and the squirrels

the beetles and bugs

seem to have other 

ideas

and by cover of night

when the fruit’s *almost* ripe

they feast upon 

all of these

we wake in the morning

excited to go

to pick the first yield

of the season

and seeing the half-eaten 

remnants of all

that hard work is when

i lost my reason

and that, officer

is why 

i burned 

my backyard

down

Produced by Laura Rice.