Peeling onions with my naked nails <br />Oh how close I come to paring off my parchment skin <br />And on it I shall write: if all else fails <br />This you shall send to those I’ve harbored, allies, foe and kin: <br /> <br />Come here and read, my cold and heedless peers, <br />That I, constrained by expectations, image, hunger, need, <br />Have found beneath the skin a well of tears <br />And with serrated slicing into stinging flesh I’ve freed <br /> <br />The piercing fragrance live between each petal, <br />Layered bodies, one upon the other, sinew, bone, <br />Bleached by salt and sweat to pearly metal; <br />The bulby victim yields and each cut screams, no more, atone! <br /> <br />Until upon my maple board I Leah <br />Slice and chop and say my weeping is the blinding sun <br />That pierces through the glass like a betrayer <br />Waiting for my soup and sauces, sweeter once I’ve done. <br /> <br />5.6.05<br /><br />Linda Hepner<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/allium-peeling-onions/
