Dorianne Laux

Incident with a Kiwi

A vexing texture, perplexing: part lime,
part greeny plum, part nectariny-peach.
Tough elephantine skin belies the pulpy
fruit beneath. Sub-divisional, each
chambered seed pathological in its
replication. Starburst of black flecks, fruit
that when cut in half can be turned degree
by degree, like a dial. Jade universe
rolled in pinwheels of grainy atmosphere.
Riddled puzzle popped raw between the teeth.
The tongue recoils by instinct from inchoate
flesh, then plunges inward in apprenticeship,
indulges the molars grinding task, unshaping
flesh to juice reduced until embroiled
in self-absorption all fall prostrate before
its slimy sluice down the throat. Crippled
in pleasure's ruination, staring enraptured
at the bowl wherein resides, like a furze
covered testis, a ripe ovary, its dark tangy twin.

Dorianne Laux is the author of three books of poetry from BOA Editions: Awake, What We Carry, and Smoke. She is also co-author with Kim Addonizio of The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry (W. W. Norton). Her work has received two NEA Grants and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her fourth book of poems, Facts About the Moon, published in 2005 by W. W. Norton, won the Oregon Book Award and was shortlisted for the Lenore Marshall Prize for the best book of 2006.

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