75,000,000 Canteloupes Shipped In Six Weeks

Posted on January 14, 2004 in Poems

I suppose

you had better come here

Viola.

I’m holding

the orange secret of the green

for our sharing.

These lizard skin eggs of the vine

won’t keep

their sweetness in this heat.

Come, Viola:

Feast on the sunset in darkness

that comes packed

sixty to a crate.

Come eat with me.

I can’t say more on a postcard.

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This poem was inspired by a postcard in my collection that shows packers in the Imperial Valley crating up mounds of musk melons. The title comes from the caption and the text was adapted from the original written by “George”.

George didn’t say it quite as elegantly as I did.