Poem 9: Hobbitat

Joe Pivetti's Poetry, Haiku and Poesy: Poem 9

Hobbitat

Men prosper in the fourth age of Middle-earth,
Colonizing central Mirkwood (that the elves confered)
And the Nurnen Sea's coast in depopulated Mordor.
(The orcs and trolls decline into the farther north).
While elves make the long voyage and dwarves go underground for riches,
The Hobbits (especially the Gamgees, Tooks and Brandybucks) flourish.
King Ellessar declares the Shire off-limits to non-Hobbit prowlers,
And adds the Westmarch where Hobbits build Undertowers.
Hobbits are long lived (retiring at one-hundred-eleventy)
And prolific (Samwise and Rosie have fourteen babies).
Hobbits are beloved in Gondor and Haldor.
As for the half-elf Peredhil, they are adorers
(Arwen's hand maiden is the Gamgee-Gardner's Elanor).
Hobbits were never feeble
But Tolkien wrote that Hobbits grew wary of Big People,
And diminished until they were rarely met.
Where to then did all the Hobbits get?
Perhaps there wasn't enough food in the Shire nests
For so many little Hobbitses and second breakfasts.
Holding the Red Book, the Hobbits would have been worldly
And the adventures of Bilbo and Frodo were surely spun widely.
Perhaps population pressure and wonder of the world
Drove Hobbit youth out of their burrows
To mix with men and bear half-halflings and half again
Until later generations mostly had the feet of men.
Now Homo Hobbitus might just be a bit smaller
With feet and appetites just a bit larger
Than that of the average man
(Except for the few Gardners still smialing in the Bag End).

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