THE SHINE JOURNAL

Apple or Pear

As I remember, I was led across her back yard, pulled along

like an unwilling duffle bag attached to a fatty, clenched fist

with enormous purpose.  My grandmother’s lawn was sprinkled

with aromatic trees that bore voluptuous fruit; walking through

to the old man’s house, was to pass from garden to wasteland. 

I still wonder about the trees- were they apple or pear?

The little house had a bad smell.  Yellow reams of newspaper

and moldy fabric draped chairs as if to provide extra padding.

I sat on the edge of one, consumed by the odor.  A parade

of cats modeled matted scruffy coats, intermittingly.  I tried

to take it all in without breathing. I remember not wanting to

gag. Now, when I recall the smell, I want to breathe it in.

He sat beside us, chanted on and on with a strange lilt (I thought

it was Irish) and slowly opened her gift from a patterned cloth.

Then he peeled apples or pears, unraveled them like these men do

(from Warsaw, using just one hand), so that the spiral peeling falls

in one long piece to the floor.  He worked the knife slowly, kept in

perfect sync to the rhythm of Yiddish and bobbing heads.  Finally,

he cut perfect wedges with just his thumb and fore finger.

Reddish Rose

The beauty of the rose

Is in its vaulted flower

That turns and twists

And inward grows

Within celestial tower.

The beauty of the field

Is in its pink-laced clover

That thrives and spreads

And will not yield

In greenest grass all over.

The beauty of your face

Is in its mildest mien

That lures and calls

My best embrace

With looks I’ve never seen.

I bring you reddish rose

From distant clovered green,

With all the bliss

From poem and prose

And all that lies between.

EDWARD NUDELMAN is a graduate of the University of Washington and is working in the Boston area as a scientist in the field of cancer research. Some of his poems have been published in The Orange Room Review, The White Leaf Review, Alone Together, Adagio Verse Quarterly, Because We Write, Thick with Conviction, Dispatch Lit Review and now Shine. He has received awards for his prose and has written two acclaimed books on a 20th Century American artist. He is a correspondent on poetry for Gather, an NPR-funded writing vehicle.  His motivations for these poems follow.