There’s Nothing Like an Apple by Mark Penny
by Patricia | 4.18.12There’s nothing like an apple
Not a thing
In summer, fall, millenium or spring
The crisp, collapsing clutter in the mouth
Wet sugar squirting east, west, north and south
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To read Mark’s other Spring Poetry Runoff Competition entries, go here and here.
*Competition entry*
April 18th, 2012 at 9:36 am
Mmmmm. I like how you’ve put “millenium” in the spot where winter should go. Seems like a thousand years, doesn’t it?
April 18th, 2012 at 9:39 am
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I totally agree—that word made the poem my favorite thing today.
April 18th, 2012 at 11:04 am
“Collapsing clutter” is the perfect phrase for what happens in the mouth when eating a really good apple.
April 18th, 2012 at 4:54 pm
You can thank a long string of really tasty apples for this one.
I like those bits, too. I don’t know where “millennium” came from, but it fit right in. For me it has a real “After Apple Picking” feel. “Collapsing clutter” pleases me, too–on the page or in the mouth.
Should I change “squirting” to “shooting”, though? More of a fireworky feel.
April 19th, 2012 at 6:50 am
The apple in this poem, for me, is green…one of those sweet green apples.
April 19th, 2012 at 12:10 pm
“Sugar shooting” has a nice alliteration. Although “squirting” really gets the saliva flowing. I’d say that’s a toss up.
April 19th, 2012 at 7:14 pm
Sounds like a leave-as. Thanks for the input, folks.
April 20th, 2012 at 3:09 pm
“Squirting” gives more the sense that the wet sugar is under the duress of teeth and tongue, more a sense of lushness, of the natural accident of being crushed and having juice fly everywhere as a consequence.
April 20th, 2012 at 8:13 pm
That clinches it. Thanks, Will.