Oranges

[Isagel]

After my post on starting out in poetry I had a sudden urge to write a poem about oranges...

So here it is:


My lover
admires the way
I cut oranges
with my penknife

I remember
Spain
I remember
sitting in the orange tree
learning the trick from my cousin
in her white dress

cutting through and squeezing them
into my mouth
like gold
like nothing I ever tasted
drinking them and throwing the peels to the dog
with no name
because that dog
eats anything, you know.

the juice sticky and fragrant
on my arms
bitter on my fingertips
as we licked ourselves clean
innocent
and absentminded.

[fayefaye]

I feel like going in search of fruit. The oranges in my house have been sitting in the fruit bowl for the last month, at least...

[sloegin]

But, why didn't you lick each other clean?

[fayefaye]

EWWWWW..... Isn't she talking about her and her COUSIN??

I remember
sitting in the orange tree
learning the trick from my cousin
in her white dress


yuck, sloegin.

[sloegin]

It always makes things more intresting.

[fayefaye]

EWWWWWWW...... I mean EWWWWWW.... It's a poem about fruit, not incest! (I hope)

[sloegin]

I know. It would have been more intresting.

[fayefaye]

Twenty first century lesbian incest? *creeped out emoticon* The word I'm looking for is 'sickening'

[sloegin]

Have you ever tried it?

[fayefaye]

yuck. NO. Of course not. Have you? Are you just trying to be antagonistic?

[sloegin]

You really shouldn't knock it, until you've tried it.
Well, I've had some relations try and get into my pants...
I'll let you decide.

[fayefaye]

I'm going to guess sexual harassment. Since you have this strange sort of twistedness about you... I don't mean that in an offensive way. *wondering if you know what I mean* *hoping you're not offended*
But, no, I wouldn't try it either.

[sloegin]

Sexual harassment: me to them, them to me, me to you? Please elaborate.

You could be missing out on something...

[fayefaye]

definately not you to me. them to you.

*realises she does not want to know what she's missing out on*

[sloegin]

Okay, good. Yes, that was how it went down.

lol. It's good to keep an open mind.

[fayefaye]

Sometimes it's both difficult and scary to try to figure out if you're serious or kidding. *slightly freaked out*

[sloegin]

I'm normally both, at the same time.

[fayefaye]

yeah. that's what's scary.

[sloegin]

What is really scary, is sometimes I can't even tell the difference.

[fayefaye]

So right now. you don't know if you're kidding or serious?

[sloegin]

No, I know what I'm doing now.

[fayefaye]

kidding?

[sloegin]

Have to be more specific?

[fayefaye]

it's a yes/no question. I think you're just trying to mess with my head.

[sloegin]

Which portion would you like to know if I was kidding.

[fayefaye]

Now you ask I'm not sure I want to know. But I meant the whole thing.

[sloegin]

Hell, now you've confused me. It's all becoming blurry.

[fayefaye]

Well, which parts were you serious about and which parts were you kidding about?

[sloegin]

That means I've got to go back and read everything. I'll just say I'm serious, it is easier.

[fayefaye]

Well, I think you were kidding the whole time, just to mess with my head. I bet you say stuff like that just for shock value. Really you probably live in just as much of a white bread world as the rest of us. You just have a sick sense of humour.

[sloegin]

Really, me, I have a sick sense of humor? Believe what you will. If shock value is what I was after, it would have gone a little something like this: Yeah, I only have hormone therapy for another six months. Then the doctors will review my case and give me another mental exam. If I pass, I can finally get the operation.

[Isagel]

Originally posted by sloegin
But, why didn't you lick each other clean?

Well, first of all the poem is a work of fiction. I made it all up.

And for awhile I almost wrote that the girls licked each other clean. But I thought that that would make people think far more sexual things than what I had in mind.

It´s supposed to be about that kind of innocence that we loose growing up. That delight in the senses when all is still new. Sensous, but not sexual. Like Eden, perhaps.

When I saw all the answers I thought that people liked this poem. Then I read all of them.

And they are mostly just you trying to tease Fay, I guess.
You make a lot of sexual remarks.
They make me regret I posted this poem.
So stop it, please.

[aiks]

Originally posted by Isagel
They make me regret I posted this poem.
So stop it, please.

Isagel, I liked your poem very much. It was so refreshing to read it. But poetry has never been appreciated by all so I really hope you're not going to stop posting them...

- aiks

[azmuse]

i liked your poem too; it flowed sweetly and easily, plus i took it to mean that your cousin showed you how to work the oranges, but your lover liked your technique...the words all blended and harmonized so well, and the ending kind of left one nostalgic for purity...lovely, fresh, and quirky.

[sloegin]

How is innocence lost?

I was not insulting your writting.

[fayefaye]

insulting my intellect. Or my morals? Isaqel, I did like your poem. Sloegin messed it up.

[fayefaye]

Some of sloegin's posts have 'messed up childhood' written all over them.

[sloegin]

Yeah, that's right, blame it all on me.

[sloegin]

As for a messed up childhood...I never got to be a child.

[fayefaye]

Sorry. I just shouldn't have replied at all. *doesn't know what to think* See, now I don't know if you're saying you never got to be a child so I shut up and sympathise, or so I just plain shut up. You're a tough nut to crack. *wishing she could just delete eveything she's written* Sorry sloegin. Still, it's like you purposefully set out to gross people out...

[sloegin]

I'm not a nut, so stop trying to crack me. Just enjoy the ride.

[Isagel]

Wrote something and then changed my mind.

[Isagel]

Aiks, thank you very much.
It´s not that I do not stand if people do not like what I write . I really appreciate if people tell me how I can improve. I know I still need to work on my english. That´s why I post them. But praise is nice as well :D .


Azmuse - thank you as well. That was exactly what I hoped for.
Mmm, what technique did you mean , I wonder ;) ? By the way - "the words all blended and harmonized so well, and the ending kind of left one nostalgic for purity...lovely, fresh, and quirky" I wish I had your way with words! And I´m all blushing now.

Fay- Do not worry. Nothing is messed up. I was just a little angry since it felt like my poor poem turned into some kind of stupid pun. Now all is fine. Really. Actually, most of the time I find Sloegins posts amusing. In a wicked sort of way. Thanks for cheering me up. I really appreciate it. Here - have an orange.

Sloegin - "how is innocence lost?"
As we live and learn, I think. And that is good. Innocence is a thing for children, but as we grow up we trade it for knowledge and experience. I think we sometimes pretend to be innocent forever by making ourselves blind to evrything and let others rule our lifes- and then to pretend we did not choose this.
Am I making sense?

[azmuse]

Hi Isagel :)
By technique i meant the way you "worked" the penknife; ok that's me sounding naughty and ghetto; but really, what it brought to mind was the description in Shogun where Blackthorne's beloved (forget her name, read it years ago) slices an orange, and i saw those peels as equally artistically separated; also i liked how you took it further and it was golden and jeweled, and an orange was no longer simply an orange, but a fruit of the gods, kind of like the three apples in that myth that i read aeons ago, i think (?) with aphrodite and her lover.

[Isagel]

It was not you being naughty , it was me. After all my talk of no sexual remarks :-). Sorry. Actually I can cut orange peels to make them open up like a flower.

Thats a beautiful picture. Now I have to read Shogun.

[sloegin]

I don't believe it's the right answer, but it makes sense.

[fayefaye]

Isaqel, write some prose poetry-you'd be so great at that. I love to just read you writing about life, because it sounds so unpretentiously eloquent.

[fayefaye]

oh wati, is unpretentious a word? *blushing emoticon* you know what I mean, you write without pretence.

[amuse]

Isagel, i hope you post this one. :)

[Isagel]

Amuse, I´m so glad you remembered this poem. Thank you, you always put so much energy in acts of kindness like this. Some day I´ll write you a poem.