POMEGRANATE

POMEGRANATE

Like the last piece of birthday cake

This pomegranate is much to much to take

Though she's filled with gems

rubies locked within her

she holds a secret that no one can ever crack

A biblical fruit

She waits unassuming in the fruit bowl

While others pick the oranges, the bananas and grapes

She is patient in her steadfastness

Soon they will see that though she is exotic

She's just as tart like a cranberry

sweet as a raspberry

red as a current

and like any jewel in the right sunlight

The kids pick the other fruits

The ones they recognize

And it doesn't bruise her skin

Though it hurts deep within

She knows one day

Someone will come for her

Day after day

the fruits leave in lunchboxes

to new homes

And still, she waits

like a puppy or a horse at the gate

Then one day a little girl

no more than six

see's her and smiles

and picks her up

lovingly and takes her home

no longer the lone fruit

in the basket and on the shelf

she now has a friend

and a place to live

and when she fully opens

the little girl

will notice just what she did

because her secret

which it took the little girl to break

was that her heart

was full of love

for the right person

and now she has it

the little pomegranate

full of ruby red seeds

and mysteries

but to the little girl

the most beautiful sight

as the red juice

flows down her arm

and the sticky sweetness

is left on her lips

But though the pomegranate

met its mighty end

it is also something to be said

for the flesh of a beautiful human

The word alone

conjures up images

of the middle east

of jewels encased

in a ruby red case

in which to crack open

the jewels fall out

and create a stain on your fingers

like the juice from overripe cherries

your body is like a pomegranate

to me

you're smooth to the touch

but if you were broken open

all your secrets would spill out

and putting you back together

would be impossible

like Humpty dumpty

when he fell off the wall

but your shell

is made of harder things

and like a bird whose had its wings

clipped so it can no longer fly

I keep you in a cage

this way I know you'll never die

I feed you grapes

and water too

and listen to you as you whisper and coo

my little prize

won by my knight

and now I see you in the morning light

And tell you how I love you

And that I'll never go away

But like a gilded cage

With the door locked tight

No one will get in

or out tonight

Just you and I

and the marriage bed

And the pomegranate seed

and then like a beetle

after they have sex

my precious

is dead.

D.Vincent Langley