Schrodinger’s Banana
Yellow banana from Southern lands
how did you end up in my hands?
Yellow banana, your life ended,
sunny disposition befriended.
Banana. You look so sweet, you hang
so nice. If I was wise, I’d eat you.
Monoculture leaves hunger hanging.
I hung ten but I ate nine!
The yellow delicious banana is so
tasty it flows in your mouth magically.
Why am I all by myself here, while
I still have days to live? Open too soon,
a cracking stem shows your youth. Wait too late,
brown spots and sweet ripeness brings mature truths.
My ripe hunger is suspended, a yellow
forgetfulness. Platano, platano
(banana), how did you get here? Ready
for me to eat. Swing low sweet banana
waiting for to feed me tonight. Safely
quarantining away from my usual
bunch. On the hook, we’re all responsible
for what happens next; we’re all bananas
here. Banana by any other name
is still banana. No matter which way
you hang it. Afraid, yet optimistic,
clinging to hope, not ready to slip from
my skin. I am undone by my own brilliance
once again—my leap of self preservation
has led to this—ever so slowly, my skin
will brown, then blacken—someone may take
notice of the flies, the sweet stickiness
of the floor below. All was revealed
to me, as I descended the conveyor
belt from the boat, so far from home. My sweet
reach touches metal, my warmth sizzles against
cool. Millimeter by millimeter
my pale skin loosens. I hold still until.
Too anxious to find out if its taste will
be like a forgotten candy from
a Halloween so long ago or so
overly ripe that it would make fruit flies
dizzy, I’ll hang Schrodinger’s banana
here. A spacey shopper abandoned me.
His sweater is in a bowl by the sink.
Original prompt: Ekphrasis after an image from Rattle.com to be entered for their ekphrastic poetry contest.
by Debby Johnson, Robin Longfield, Barbara Berg, Frances J. Vasquez, Ai Miyamoto Kelley, Nan Friedley, Rob McMurray, Natalie Champion, Cati Porter, Dar Stone, Joseph Milazzo, Gudelia Vaden, Thomas Vaden, Rick Champion, Robert Merrill, Rakhi Shelat, Cindi Neisinger, Burcu Misirli Chatham
Inlandia: A Literary Journey 