Bananas, A Short Still-Life

They’re big spikes like the ones
in the Statue of Liberty’s crown,
and freshly painted an industrial-wall
shade of green when I bring them home.


But nothing rots as fast as a banana,
and overnight one on the bottom
yellows up and it’s peel begins to look
like the only hatchling in a nest of green.


I eat this one by snapping off its
cue-stick tip the way elephants do,
and the peel falls like a jacket leaving
just white from where the sun don’t shine.


But nothing rots as fast as a banana,
and after a few days while fruit flies
supply air cover they lay on the table as
limp as a sock puppet without an inner hand.




9/15/2011 FG

All rights reserved by the author Forrest Greenwood.

I know it's a reach, but my mindset is on the US economy.  Like the sock puppet, the economy has lost its inner hand.

Some Democratic talking heads like to describe austerity measures as a race to the bottom.  This is an empty phrase that doesn't realize what free-trade, entitlements, and legacy costs have done to all of us.  The only thing we can do is get rid of the tax code - and that may not be enough.