Another Melodious Ode to Melons filed in Guests

For Jo

When melon ripe the bug bemoans
The happy crunch of beetle bones
Is a source of untold joy
As you insectile worlds destroy
There falls Sparta, there falls Rome
There falls another aphid's home

When empires of the cucurbit
Are by beetle disturbed
The good soil weeps beneath your spade
As you enact a light crusade
That unwritten fate with ode intones
The happy crunch of beetle bones