Me,
Standing
Underneath
A swamp cypress
******* at an orange while the rain falls
~
Tacky fingered and smelling of citrus
T-shirt front stained
Warm with juice,
I taste
You.
‘When oranges came in, a curious proceeding was gone through. Miss Jenkyns did not like to cut the fruit, for, as she observed, the juice all ran out nobody knew where, ******* [only I think she used some more recondite word] was in fact the only way of enjoying oranges; but then there was the unpleasant association with a ceremony frequently gone through by little babies; and so, after dessert, in orange season, Miss Jenkyns and Miss Matty used to rise up, possess themselves each of an orange in silence, and withdraw to the privacy of their own rooms to indulge in ******* oranges.’
- Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford
