Bayoneted Watermelon

Another poet reported that
She had cut a watermelon
With a US civil war bayonet.

My mind whirls.  Did she get
The blade at some junk sale
Or did she pay more instead?

Was it a Union or Confederate?
Had it seen its intended use
In that horrible brotherly struggle?

Then poet, my mind whirls away
To the etymology of the word.
Looks French.  A small bayon?

Oh.  Such sad disappointment.
It is just named for the town of Bayonne.
It just means from Bayonne.

There must have been a blade
Making industry there for a type
Of weapon to be named after them.

Well French was right.  Watermelon is great.
I hear the sound of the blade cutting the melon.
I smell the tang of the rind and taste the juice on my tongue.

Dedicated to the poet +Amanda Rachelle Warren  whose comment on a post of +Bliss Morgan made my brain explode with thinkage.