PAD Challenge Day 18: Head Like a Squash

 Today's prompt from Write Better Poetry is to write an ekphrastic poem (one inspired by a work of art). The NaPoWriMo prompt is a little unusual: Take the title of one of the uniquely-named chapters of a poetry writing craft book by Susan Goldsmith Woodbridge called Poemcrazy. They can be viewed on Amazon.com under the "Look Inside" feature, and there are some quirky chapter titles like "grocery weeping," "the blue socks," "naming wild hippo," and "I dress myself with rain." I chose the most intriguing of all to me, "the answer squash," and Googled "squash art." I came up with a fascinating art installation at the Tate Gallery in London by Anthea Hamilton, where models wander around in a huge tiled room, wearing outlandish fashions, and masks that look like huge pear-shaped squashes. The exhibit is called "The Squash."  (It reminds me of a saying from my wife's Italian side of the family: "You have a head like a gagootz!", or just plain, "Gagootz!" It means you're dumb - a head like a squash.  Cucuzza is an Italian variety of squash, and in dialectic slang it became "gagootz.")

You can find more information on Hamilton's installation here, It's a kid's site but it has good information and lots of photos. Here's  a sample:

And here is my brief poem:

The Answer Squash

I climbed the many stairs to the temple
and there found the oracle in repose,
 
resplendent in white and gold,
reclining in a huge tiled atrium.
 
But her head was an enormous squash
so I forgot my question.