AND YOU SHOULD SEE THE CRITTERS JUMP...:

Pumpkin Hurling (Stephen Scaer, November 21, 2007, First Things)

Every Columbus Day
the locals bring their chairs
and watch a trebuchet
launch pumpkins past a fort
of tin, as engineers
at play attempt to crush
the record for the sport
of hurling giant squash.

It must have been a shock
when such a monster threw
silent rounds of rock
into the market square
hundreds of years ago.
But the Big Moons they hurl
today could only scare
the unsuspecting squirrel.

[...]