Ode to Pomelo

Pomelo fruit with segments. Photo by Ivar Leidus, Wikimedia Commons.

I had another post planned for today, but I couldn’t bring myself to write much this week. I was inspired, however, by the poems written in response to

Nelly Bryce

’s

Poetry Pals

prompt of writing poems about food. There was a strawberry poem from

Tara Connor

and a poem about lime zest and black bean soup from

Margaret Ann Silver

. I mention food in many of my poems, but it’s a supporting character. “Ode to Pomelo”¹ is about food, the pomelo specifically. I wrote it when I was in the pomelo’s thrall.

Ode to Pomelo

We met at the Berkeley Bowl,
bowling alley turned grocery store,
between the rubies from Texas 
and Sunkists from Florida.
I’d heard rumors of a melting 
sweetness, like a ripe grapefruit with
the sheen of sprinkled-on sugar.
I took you home with me,
no time for pleasantries,
and undressed you standing at
the kitchen sink, ate
your pink flesh, your
juices sluicing down my chin.
I could not get enough of you—
three months of one winter lost—then
your sweetness became too familiar.
I left you, as I’d left so many others,
cut in half for weeks
at the back of the refrigerator.
I meant to come back, 
but you suspected the truth—
saw the signs in the old
yogurt tub. I’d met 
someone new. It was spring after all
and you couldn’t compete with 
the strawberries: red, luscious, 
perfect for eating whole.

The pomelo is an ancestor of today’s grapefruit, which is a cross between the pomelo and orange. If you like odes and food, I highly recommend the great Pablo Neruda who wrote Ode to a Large Tuna in the Market, Ode to Tomatoes, among many others—artichokes, onions … socks.

Thanks so much for reading, commenting, liking … I wish you all a beautiful day.

1. “Ode to Pomelo” was originally published in Alehouse Press in 2010.