Byway Bylines
December, 2024

Pull out the drawing pens, digital paintbrush or whatever gets your creative juices pumping. The Paul Bunyan Scenic Byway Association has teamed up with Salon Couture in Pequot Lakes to offer you a chance to create a graphic representation of this year’s Paul Bunyan ‘seasons greetings’ poem, Holiday Head.
Submit your entry by the end of the day, December 20, 2024. The winner will receive a $75.00 gift certificate to Salon Couture. Your entry can be emailed to info@paulbunyanscenicbyway.org or sent in regular mail to PO Box 401, Pequot Lakes, MN 56472. All entries must include name and contact information. Winner will be notified by December 27. Wishing you a holiday filled with Bunyan-sized joy!

HOLIDAY HEAD
Paul Bunyan, it’s said, got a holiday head.
It came on like a swirl of new snow.
Oddly concerning, each hair took to turning
And suddenly started to grow.
Babe noticed it first with a burst of surprise,
And blinked to be sure it was true.
Yet an ox can’t be fooled; an ox has smart eyes.
Paul’s new hair was growing out blue!

Now Babe, as we know, isn’t prone to tiptoe,
But a careful approach was required.
The closer he got, he saw scampering knots
Hooking hairs ‘til they flipped and rewired.
Paul reached up a hand and pulled down a blue strand
That was twisty and wrangly and hot.
“Tarnation!” he bellowed, like a Bunyan command,
“It’s the holiday scampering knots!”

His burst of oration was pure inspiration
And Babe felt a thought start to brew.
With Paul’s hair a -blue-ing and growing and skewing
Fairly matching Babe’s natural sky blue,
He moved closer to Paul, hairy head, horns and all
Draping blue hair on each naughty knot
The knots saw the blue and assumed they were through
And swirled away right on the spot.

Paul’s holiday head launched a story that spread
And the camp jacks and sawyers would tell it.
They might stroke their beards or smile wryly instead
Like there’s more, but they’re trying to quell it.
Then out it would pop, like a scampering knot,
And the moral of the story would come,
That a blue headed ox and a blue headed logger
Proved two heads are better than one!