"Meditation on a Grapefruit"

Today, a lovely poem by the lovely and great Craig Arnold. God, we miss him.

Meditation on a Grapefruit

To wake when all is possible
before the agitations of the day
have gripped you
          To come to the kitchen
and peel a little basketball
for breakfast
          To tear the husk
like cotton padding           a cloud of oil
misting out of its pinprick pores
clean and sharp as pepper
          To ease
each pale pink section out of its case
so carefully           without breaking
a single pearly cell
          To slide each piece
into a cold blue china bowl
the juice pooling           until the whole
fruit is divided from its skin
and only then to eat
          so sweet
                    a discipline
precisely pointless           a devout
involvement of the hands and senses
a pause           a little emptiness

each year harder to live within
each year harder to live without