Scared to find they are not sweet

by Everlasting   Aug 23, 2020


You see, everyday, when I’m at work
I scan the same familiar fruits
oranges, apples, mandarins, bananas
beep, beep, beep, beep
but every once in a while
I come across a fruit
that I don’t know it’s PLU

like today
the rambutans
3041

because they are so weird to come by
I examine the way they are
and I look at them
and I ask
“What do they taste like?”

I’m always told they are so sweet
that I should give them a try
But when I’m about to buy some for myself
I remember
that you were like the rambutans
and I
Go for the apples, the bananas,
the mandarins or oranges instead
because I’m tired
of being let down

4


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Latest Comments

  • 3 years ago

    by Poet on the Piano

    Nominated this because it's so fresh, and unexpected. I read this a few days ago and couldn't forget it. I liked the routine and comfort perhaps, of scanning the same items. It's to be expected. Work is work. The every day items people buy and feel safe with. But trying something new (and I've never had rambutans either), is too much. The promise of something sweet, again, after being let down by this person. This spoke incredibly on loss and the way we try and maybe succeed at going back to our lives, whether some may find it mundane, or to us it curbs the anxieties, you know the tastes and descriptions and beings of these fruits. And when someone throws a curveball at you, it's easier to avoid, to think it doesn't exist or it's not for you. Because sweet things don't always last. And they can shock you. Sweet can become bitter and the good that's promised may lead you to not prepare for other hurts.

    The images of the fruit were unique, and those last few lines simply written added such layers.

    Love this, dear Luce!

  • 3 years ago

    by Ben Pickard

    Yes, sometimes there's comfort (and safety) in the familiar, Lucero. I understand this completely.
    I also understand the scanning problem. We have a whole manual where I work full of numbers for those fruits that no one ever buys. Vegetables too, in fact...

    I hope you are keeping well.

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