I am posting this poem, one of my favorites, if only to briefly capture the beauty and lightheartedness of this glorious summer ----also Mish's favorite fruits :)
Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle Received from a Friend Called Felicity
John Tobias
During that summer
When unicorns were still possible;
When the purpose of knees
Was to be skinned;
When shiny horse chestnuts
(Hollowed out
Fitted with straws
Crammed with tobacco
Stolen from butts
In family ashtrays)
Were puffed in green lizard silence
While straddling thick branches
Far above and away
From the softening effects
Of civilization;
During that summer--
Which may never have been at all;
But which has become more real
Than the one that was--
Watermelons ruled.
Thick imperial slices
Melting frigidly on sun-parched tongues
Dribbling from chins;
Leaving the best part,
The black bullet seeds,
To be spit out in rapid fire
Against the wall
Against the wind
Against each other;
And when the ammunition was spent,
There was always another bite:
It was a summer of limitless bites,
Of hungers quickly felt
And quickly forgotten
With the next careless gorging.
The bites are fewer now.
Each one is savored lingeringly,
Swallowed reluctantly.
But in a jar put up by Felicity,
The summer which maybe never was
Has been captured and preserved.
And when we unscrew the lid
And slice off a piece
And let it linger on our tongue:
Unicorns become possible again.
What a happy and uplifting poem of magical and care-free childhood days. It makes a strong case for buying watermelons with seeds.
ReplyDeleteI have always loved this poem and cannot read it without getting happily tearful at the last stanza. I remember myself as a skinny kid sitting on the front porch on a hot summer's evening eating watermelon and spitting out the seeds just as this poem relates. Watermelon eating was usually preceded by a full day of wild play outside beginning at 7am and ending when the lightening bugs came out.
ReplyDeleteTechnically, I love the descriptive language John Tobias uses in this piece--"green lizard silence," "thick imperial slices," "summer of limitless bites." Of course it could only be "Felicity" (pure happiness) who puts up the watermelon so we can savor the taste of those days long ago.
The poet is right, we sometimes remember what might "never have been at all; but which has become more real than the one that was--." I have been known to embellish a memory or two, but I do have honest recollections of certain summer days that are perfectly captured by this poem. Yes, unicorns were possible and watermelons did rule!
SMILEY LASHES SAID
ReplyDeleteLoverley poem and oh so nostalgic to be eight going on 12 ,going on .........again .The memories come flooding back. Days of innocence and friendship searching the mystery of 0ur lives and planet .Dangerous liaisons with friends ,the quick draw of a forbidden cigarette ( sometimes behind the bike sheds at school),the high climb to secret places and dens , F0R which we would have been soundly told off my Mum 0R Dad . Yes,once again we can still have the feel of this freedom albeit fleetingly, but whether or not it actually happened matters N0T 1 jot for these are our memories and childhood , never to be lost 0R subsumed by reality .Unicorns are not mythology when you are that age , they can be our friends and all is possible !
...and Smiley and Gilly are reliving their childhood dreams in their magic tent ASLAN :)
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