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So Far So Safe

By E. K. Gordon on January 1, 2018

Open can of pineapples.

I thought I had a can of pineapple
but it’s only apricots
in the cabinet, apricots in syrup. Still,
what wealth. So far from my fellow citizens
eating in the dark, petitioning the monster
for water. So far and so safe
that an appetite for pineapple
can rise up in me this oddly warm
October morning like a trout in a lake,
like a trout the color of days‐old bruises, jaw
aglint with a spiral witness of hooks:
All we all want
is to live.

E. K. Gordon lives in Cohoes, N.Y.


Posted in: Poetry, Quaker Lifestyles

2 Responses to So Far So Safe

  1. Neftali January 15, 2018 at 2:36 pm #

    City & State
    Ft Lauderdale Florida
    I enjoyed your poem. One thing concerned me though. You mention bruises. Why?

    Reply
  2. Nancy Gonzalez January 22, 2018 at 7:04 pm #

    City & State
    Querėtaro, Mexico.
    Lovely!

    I would have writen:
    “I thought I had a can of apricots
    but its only pineaple…”
    (being from Mexico)

    Reply

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