Stephen Payne
Peeling a Tangerine for Madeleine
Pierce the skin
in a single place—
feel the acid sting
beneath the finger nails,
breathe the citrus spray.
Tease the peel from the flesh.
Stretch the web of white membranes,
that spittle-like pith,
until it relents.
But be gentle,
leave the skin intact,
apart from that single spiral tear,
so that when the flesh
is divided then served
it is spared
and reverts to its proper shape.
Nearly a sphere,
a miniature planet
with a giant San Andreas fault.
The Joke Tangerine,
a shell with no yolk,
the sac without a heart.
For the heart has gone to Madeleine
who is devouring it
segment by segment.
Page(s) 39
magazine list
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- Poetry Salzburg Review
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- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
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- Shearsman
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- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The