Juditha Dowd: "Conversing with an Orange"

Yüksel taught us the right way

to eat the Turkish portakal.

You do it slowly, talking with friends,

attentive to the task.

I saw that preparation

can be an aspect of taste,

as time may often be of place,

and I memorized the rule:

Slice off the stem,

work your knife in carefully

under the pebbled skin.

Score it in six vertical lines.

An orange can last all evening

with a glass of sweetened tea,

talk melding with the fruit,

the stacked elliptical peel.

You climb the honey-scented hills

of Izmir or Mersin,

build a small white fortress

from the wrinkled seeds.

"Conversing with an Orange" by Juditha Dowd, from Back Where We Belong (Casa de Cinco Hermanas Press, 2012). Text as posted on Your Daily Poem (4/11/2013).

Art credit: "Orange with Leaf," oil on hardboard, painting by Faith Te.