Andrew Stacey
Originally published in The Evergreen Review Issue 111 in 2006.
how mandarin rinds fell from your hands
left holding naked fruit
how shameless lips danced the shape
of each slice of flesh
wholly stripped of any evidence
that pith or bitter skin could obscure
the sweet that lay within
it is impossible to deny that sense of longing
for the things left unknown because
we never knew they existed
had no reason to believe
given the confines of our enlightenment
that still more distant shores hid beyond
still more distant seas
where young girls butchered
rare fruits, watching the sun
set beyond the Andes
to where strange young boys
consumed strange meats
