Pomegranate

eat of the pomegranate and be glad

   for that other tree in the garden

   may bring you to sadness or madness

 

admire the lacquered red of the pomegranate

   select design of temple cloth and stone

   amidst glorious present shapes of earth

 

prise open and enjoy the pomegranate’s beads

   fleck and tang on tongue and mind

   forgetful a while either of need or death

 

listen to the modest scale of the pomegranate

   budding anew from immemorial

   unheard by the world’s noisy power play

 

take in the scent of the opened pomegranate

   intended beauty suffusing breath

   refusing thoughts of apathy or despair

 

 

Genesis 2: 9

1 Kings 7:20 

Pitaya

now the flaming green wings

   and rubicund circumference of the dragon

   might be a sight to draw awe or fright

 

and being smooth to touch curved and rubbery

   not mailed or plate-scaled or fire-breathing

   tests expectations and analogies

 

yet is neither exploding hand grenade

   nor tasselled psychedelic boombox

   split with a cleaver or tomahawk

 

it’s cactus its compacted aroma

   quintessence of tropic rainfall

   inside out of great scale persistent heat

 

its contracted reservoir mild sweetness

   anodyne soothing like so much to be said

   the opposite of what we assumed

 

iPhone

 

Starless and Babel black oblong keepsake

claw grip upways a prod springs colour,

universe in universal remake

your own self holds, palm reading futures.

Charge up the silicon valley of debt!

Each one its own start-up datacentre,

candid camera private details net

nonstop news c/- rich tech inventors.

Who is this I who phones each one of us

in breathless apps clocks email spendthrift spam

updating itself with no further discuss?

Lock, stock and barrel passwords’ great I Am.

Colours chart back to black times repeated

taking IDs contacts not deleted.