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How To Peel an Orange
by Bruce W Niedt
Hold it loosely, like a yellow baseball.
Rub the leathery hide.
Punch a fingernail through the nippled top.
Push through to the hollow below.
Rip, pull out and down gently.
Watch the spray of oil in the air.
Inhale the pungent citrus.
Disregard the orange-white meat beneath your nails.
Disrobe this fruit completely.
Pick off the gangly strings of useless pulp.
Regard the naked segments, and with both thumbs,
separate the hemispheres.
Tear through the meridian.
See the droplets weep through the membranes.
Strip the translucent skin.
Reveal the clustered buds of juice like teardrops.
Peel off one tender crescent.
Bring it to your lovers lips, so as to
suck it, nibble it, bite it
bursting the tiny juice pockets,
licking your fingertips.
Repeat.
[First published in Stirring: A Literary Collection, April 2000; also published in Mind Caviar, Spring 2001]
09/30/2001 Posted on 09/30/2001
Copyright © 2025 Bruce W Niedt
| Member Comments on this Poem |
| Posted by Mary Ellen Smith on 06/30/04 at 02:12 AM Brilliant descriptive writing! Anyone who reads this will never peel an orange the same way again! Orange juice anyone? |
| Posted by Kimberly Bare on 03/07/05 at 11:12 PM wow! I never knew how sexy fruit could be... |
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