Friday, December 12, 2008

If Life Gives You Lemons, Make

your mouth into a trough, a spout 
from which that sour sauce will pour,
pulp and spittle swimming down your 
chin, eyes pinched shut, each acid thought
welling under the tongue. Thin slice
of pain wedged on the salty rim
of your face, let its tart grace skim
your glass neat: no sugar, no ice
to temper this bite, this slick burst
that cankers your lips. Life gives you 
lemons: cut your teeth on their rinds,
tear them with gusto, slake your thirst
with their slavering, jaundiced juice,
swallow hard, leave no seeds behind.


JENNIFER PERRINE

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