Citrus Fiesta (Poems by Juliet Wilson)

Photo by Gabrielle Bryden

 

Papayas and Lemons

In your garden grew a beautiful lemon tree
In mine there was a papaya tree

We breakfasted on fresh papayas
sprinkled with ginger
and drizzled with lemon juice

Until one day a raging storm
blew down the papaya tree

Now we eat our breakfasts alone
and you take your lemons to market

______________________________

48 hours without
(on a 2 day sponsored fast for charity)

I bought a bag of tangerines
for the time of breaking the fast –
they sat, glowing orange
temptation in the fruit bowl.

The first day I struggled
to remain normal, distracted
by ugly rumbles in my stomach –
signs of a deep hunger

that on the second day
gave way to dizzy light headedness,
an ability to float
above the mundane everyday.

On the forty ninth hour
I held a tangerine, its scent
spicing the air; how strangely
difficult it was to eat

to deny myself my entry
into that other existence
I had almost started
to glimpse.

__________________________________________________

Juliet Wilson is a Scottish poet from Edinburgh (aka Crafty Green Poet) who blogs here (‘creative thinking, greener living’). She is the author of the poetry colleciton ‘Unthinkable Skies’.

Thanks Juliet 🙂