We pull ourselves open,
oranges exposed as flesh,
the pungent smell
of being closed too long
something of a surprise.
Have we been ripe without
knowing and forgotten
to take ourselves as serious,
lie down on harsher things
to be opened by wiser hands
than our own? The oranges
we are spell time in ways
our closed selves cannot
imagine, pain goes hollow
and then full again the way
electric storms fill the sky
suddenly and then bring
only light, the rain a tease.
Afaa Michael Weaver‘s 12th collection of poetry won the 2014 Kingsley Tufts Award. His other honors include three Pushcarts, a Fulbright, a Pew fellowship, an NEA, and the May Sarton Award. In playwriting he was awarded the PDI award from ETA Creative Arts Foundation. He did his graduate work in Brown’s writing program. Afaa teaches at Simmons College and in the Drew U MFA program. Visit Afaa’s website: www.afaaweaver.net