Tangerines on sale:
3 for $2.
I bagged 5, paid for them, brought them home.
One for each day of the week.
Tangerines are like mandarins,
with thin dimply skins,
less white mesocarp and less than round,
they, like clementines, are heavy
and sweetly unsour.
Genetically undefined, tangerines
can have a varying number of seeds.
By morning light, white clouds
are starting to thin
as I prod
seed after seed after seed
from my Tangerine.
Before my Tangerine is seedless, it promises
“later you will taste
the value of a life, a small
citrus who grew for months
for this- to be free of seeds.
Spread my children
to where they may grow.”
The orange insides smile with the sun.
My duty is fulfilled.
I stand, knife in hand,
proud of my pile of seeds.
I will not count them because
I know there are more
hiding in the juicy folds,
hiding patiently
in my tangerine.
