Previous Entry | Top
Menu | Next Entry
How to Eat Grapefruit
By Michael S. Smith
Right before he died
my father left me
one last life lesson--
how to eat grapefruit.
Cut a small round hole,
he said & suck the juice
through the incision,
then pull it inside-
out with your thumbs & strip
the empty-veined flesh
from the skin with your teeth.
All those hours pacing
while his gaping chest
fed the sucking machines
and surgeons' thumbs groped
and stripped him empty,
I thought of grapefruits,
Dad efficiently
sucking life from them.