Meditation on a Grapefruit

The ritual act of peeling and eating a grapefruit is a meticulous, visceral joy. Through the years it's become a sort of sacrament, especially when shared with specific people, one of whom sent this to me.

This year, I've also recorded all the poems I'm posting. Click the title of the poem to listen.

Meditation on a Grapefruit

To wake when all is possible
before the agitations of the day
have gripped you
                     To come to the
   kitchen
and peel a little basketball
for breakfast
           To tear the husk
like cotton padding     a cloud of
  oil
misting out of its pinprick pores
clean and sharp as pepper
                              To ease
each pale pink section out of its
   case
so carefully        without breaking
a single pearly cell
                    To slide each piece
into a cold blue china bowl
the juice pooling       until the
   whole
fruit is divided from its skin
and only then to eat
                   so sweet
                             a discipline
precisely pointless       a devout
involvement of the hands and
   senses
a pause     a little emptiness

each year harder to live within
each year harder to live without

by Craig Arnold