Avocados and Pomegranates and Crystal Meth

On this startlingly sparkling autumn day
I went out in my backyard and I found
Two big ripe avocados on the ground

I never eat them but give them away
Left in a shopping bag for my neighbor
Who gives me pomegranates in return

I never eat those either but I learn
Dynamics of friendship trade and labor
Backyard fruit becomes currency exchange
Barter economics if rather strange
Practiced with green and red commodities

Avocados and pomegranates are
Coin of the realm in neighborhoods like these
Subtropical fruitful communities
Trading in subtropical oddities
Nobody here keeps their fruit in a jar

I only wish I had an apple tree
Now there is a fruit on which we agree
If I had apples I would eat them all

A crazy man came screaming down our street
Pushing a shopping cart and pulled by death
Shopping for something which we do not grow

And somewhere within his bone-chilling call
I heard somebody who might like to eat
A pomegranate or avocado

I also heard the cry of crystal meth

But he was so angry he scared me so
For now it looks like I may never know

+Steven Curtis Lance



Copyright MMV

i learned about the custom of people proving, confirming their humanitarianism by the exchange of a few words, or gifts (which don't even mean anything to them) quite late...

I believed people would be more engaged with, more interested in people than they would be in gestures

Yeah...

I just give the avocados away so they won't go to waste... I suppose I should eat the pomegranates but, as you know, I am somehow afraid of both avocados and pomegranates, along with a lot of other things. It's crazy, but true. And I am sick right now in any case.

That man with the shopping cart was obviously totally tweaked-out today; boy, was he ever screaming! He was consumed by that special crystal meth rage. Have a look at the comments I got on AuthorsDen... I hope they don't think I was tweaking!? One never knows what people are thinking. All I did was pick up two ripe avocados off the ground, heard the man yelling and the dogs all barking at him and went out to watch him walk by. Then I came in the house and wrote this poem. I'm glad he was on the other side of the street! We never see anything like that around here; it was very strange.

I have a beautiful cup of vanilla hazelnut tea now, so that's a good thing. And, after I wrote this poem (thinking of apples), I went to the store, bought some apples, and ate a few. I have a lot of them now, in the refrigerator to keep them crunchy.

Maybe everything will be OK... I hope so.

Thanks for being the great person you are. I appreciate you.

Love,

+Stevie

A postscript written ten hours later:

It looks like they understood the poem correctly on AD after all; that's good.

I slept pretty well, without nightmares, having taken Valerian root, which seems to be effective.

The wheel of karma seems to be turning: I was asked to evaluate my doctor today, and, of course, I gave him the highest possible rating, as he deserves it. And then the medical office asked me for the Social Security phone number so they could call them on my behalf, and fax them my medical records. Maybe everything really will be OK somehow.

I have to get ready for Maria's coming now; that will be nice, and it's a beautiful day here.

Thanks so much for everything, dear Franziska.

Love,

+Stevie