The Orange

The Orange

The Jaffa oranges are in

But you must buy the crate

You must take your chances

 Some years so sweet

Winter weeps at the memory

Some years astringent tears

I will find a friend

Gamble, and split a crate

Sweet or tart

It is no matter to the grocer

Reviews

[Marie]

I love this wonderful poem and the title drew me in to read it because when I was growing up in Ireland, we looked forward to the arrival each year of Jaffa oranges which came wrapped in a special paper in a timber crate. They were the juiciest, sweetest oranges of all and with a beautiful flavour not found in any other orange. I haven't seen them in a very long time in Ireland in recent years, sadly. A wonderful idea to buy the crate and half the oranges with a friend! I would very gladly halve my crate with you if I lived near you, dear Delmar. I love this poem, so charmingly inked and Thank you! for the trip through reading your poem back to yesteryear where sweet memories of Jaffa oranges still linger. Lovely work! Thank you for sharing...

[Delmar Cooper]

Thanks for your gracious comment. I have only seen them in the small wooden crates. I worked for a while at a produce house and was astonished at the variety of inported fruits and vegetables we bought and sold. Made the world seem smaller to eat a Chilean plum in winter.

[Marie]

How lovely wo work at a produce store, Delmar. I can only imagine the assortment of produce which you bought and sold and yet, eating a plum from Chile in Winter makes the world seem a little smaller. In Ireland, we get seasonal fruits from all over the world too and now we seem to get them all year round. Thank you so very much for your very kind and informative comment, Delmar. Wishing you a very blessed and beautiful day to enjoy. Have a wonderful new week ahead too...

[jacob erin-cilberto]

i see a metaphor here...we need to be all in or not in at all...we can't just tip-toe around life,
trying this or that...we have to commit to goals and buy the whole crate of dreams...sweet or tart...we will have both eventually...it is how we digest them.

[Delmar Cooper]

These were a big export for Palestinian growers for years. First Arabs then after 1947 the Israelis. An orange is an orange.

[Lyn Anderson]

I love these poems that can be taken literally and also applied to life in general, great job.

[Beccy]

Brilliant take on the progression of life and how we must take it as it comes, good or bad. And indeed, in the end, it matters not to the 'grocer.'

Beccy.

[Delmar Cooper]

Thank you for reading and for your take on meaning. It is good to know how someone else perceives a written work.