FRANCINE EATS ORANGES

James Michael Taylor

From a poem by Shannon Elizabeth Hardwick

Francine Creates Her Story As If Asked to Author Her Own Birth

Francine eats oranges like they are herself in a field after a long swim in the river next to her father’s house and she is warm in the field, slightly wet. Francine understands memories are stones, some heavier than others, some shinier, too, but all are for the pocket, which could bury us if we chose to go alone into the river without St. Gabriel to save us. Francine plows her mother’s bones because she’s alone, she writes, inside her suffering. I want a grove, she writes, of oranges happy to be oranges and a father to tend to them while I catch fish in the river. Francine eats oranges like they are herself in a field after a long swim in the river.

FRANCINE EATS ORANGES

Francine eats oranges and swims in the river that runs by her father’s house.
Francine says her memories are stones, some are heavy, some shine in the light of the plow
They fill up our pickets. They threaten to bury her if she jumped in the river right now
Francine eats oranges and swims in the river that runs by her father’s house.

Da da da

Francine plows the bones of her mother alone and writes in her suffering
“I want an orange grove, dear Father,” she sings as she teases a fish with her string
Francine eats oranges like they are herself after a swim in the rain
Francine plows the bones of her mother alone and writes in her suffering

Francine

© 2012 S E Hardwick/Royal T Music

(C) 2013 SEHardwick and Jmt