Monday, February 28, 2011

lemon














In Sunday-go-to-meeting
clothes, the Betty Boop 
of fruit, a natural-born flirt, 
can be very unpretty.
After the first sweet sip, drips
a brutal aftertaste. They say blood 
can’t be squeezed from a turnip.
Sometimes, no matter how
hard you try, lemonade
can’t be made from a lemon. 
Sugar hides a multitude,
but it's no good to be
both hungry and afraid.



Tess Kincaid
February 2011


Would you like me to read it to you?

91 comments:

  1. wow. love your closing line...and sugar covers a multitude...nice depth tess...

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  2. Usually there is a standout line for me, one that I like even more than the rest but today there are several. From "Sometimes..." on I kept rereading. Sugar hides a multitude makes me think of so many things...

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  3. brilliant...pure and true.

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  4. "The Betty Boop of fruit" is going to be repeating itself in my mind...

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  5. Please, dear Tess ... share with us how you came up with 'the Betty Boop of fruit' angle ~ great one!

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  6. Helen, I jotted "Betty Boop" in my notebook of collected words and ideas a week or two ago. It's just such a great, quirky name. When I thought about how I might relate her to a lemon, "Betty Boop of fruit" popped up!

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  7. This one falls into the "WOW" category! Surprising in it's turnaround, just like life.

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  8. mixed feelings on this one...agree with the "sugar covers a multitude" but then I find myself staring at that lemon...and WHAT happened to it...

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  9. keeping a close eye on those Betty Boops from now on...

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  10. Another WOW! The Betty Boop of fruit! I love it! I absolutely adore all the metaphors in this one short poem. It was brilliant! It can be read on so many levels. I'll be coming back to read this one again and again.

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  11. Jill, the bloody lemon is the Magpie Tales prompt this week. The Maggies are always conjuring blood and gore from almost anything. I thought I'd give them a good excuse this week!

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  12. Good one, Tess. "...the Betty Boop
    of fruit, a natural-born flirt..." has stayed with me.

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  13. This is timely, I have decided to call my dad today. It is his birthday and we have not talked since 1985. Wish me luck but "sometimes no matter how hard you try, lemonade can't be made from a lemon."

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  14. well, you may not be able to squeeze blood from a turnip, but you sure did squeeze an interesting magpie from that lemon!

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  15. Tess reading your work, is much like todays Magpie. It's so full of zesty vocabulary and it leaves us bleeding and dying for more words. It's brilliant. Nuff said!

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  16. That's a memorable one! Wonderful image to marry the poem.

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  17. Lovely piece, Tess, I love the 'Betty Boop' of fruit line too. Great ending line also.

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  18. Loved the closing lines, like your image prompt, very thought provoking.

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  19. "After the first sweet sip, drips
    a brutal aftertaste." love the depth from so few words!

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  20. A hint of sour undercurrents ...Clever!

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  21. There are several lines that shoot out at me from the page so it's hard to have a favourite. I just love the whole piece - so much truth in so few, clever words.

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  22. Lots of truth in that squeeze blood from a turnip...

    I just heard this word the other day. I used to hear it all the time. When was the last time you heard somebody called a, "prick" ?

    So that is today's word.

    I noted your notebook. I got some myself as I keep journals but also keep notebooks with things written down in real ink from a real fountain pen. lol

    Seems to be important that way.

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  23. "The Betty Hoop of Fruit" *giggles*
    Will I ever again look at a lemon seriously, let alone squeeze her?

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  24. good gracious, you mean that is blood on that lemon?
    I'm not sure I can trust my brain to write a printable magpie on this one
    Loved your Betty Boop fruit
    Oh the Madonna of the Magpie artist is Ayse Gilbert...

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  25. This is pretty chilling Tess - it conjures up all those pretty people who only want to do you harm. Yikes!

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  26. Dear Willow, Did ever a lemon threaten as the one you 'paint' for us today?!! So often I find a bitter sweetness in your poetry and this is certainly no exception for me.

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  27. excellent write - address a point that I've always considered - when life gives you lemons - hope it adds a little sugar??

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  28. So many things need sweetening..real is better than artificial..what a neat poem..as usual!!

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  29. the sugar sweet slap! steven

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  30. Fun piece Tess. Sweet! And sour!

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  31. Sweet and sour, giggles
    and gurgles, with this
    bright yet dark vision
    that you must have done
    with an overlap piece of
    glass. What did you use
    for bloody fingerprints.
    I found it very ironic
    that I found several
    love hearts traced in
    the blood; very rorschach
    of me, enit.

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  32. Glenn, just a bit of photoshopping. No glass involved. How very Rorschach of you to see the hearts, especially two of them!

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  33. as others have said the betty boop of fruit is quite memorable. thanks for your story of your notebook notations. the photo with blood spurts evokes lots of thoughts. a lemony snicket vampire?

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  34. Sugar hides a multitude,
    but it's no good to be
    both hungry and afraid.

    Beautiful. Seriously.

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  35. If life serves you lemons, you can make lemonade. Or ask for tequila and salt. Or start a lemon grove. There you have two other options.

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  36. A bit of tartness, sweetened, yet still stings with depth.

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  37. Betty Boop of fruit....love it!

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  38. Betty Boop of fruit- good one!

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  39. "the Betty Boop of fruit" ..that line strikes ...beaautiful...the ending is also brilliant..

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  40. A very meaningful and thoughtful poem with a lot of depth- provocative.

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  41. I still hope the blood isn't yours (or anyone's).

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  42. "the Betty Boop of fruit". a
    complicated beauty :)

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  43. Your work has such depth. It is a pleasure to read and to consider your perspective. The Betty Boop lemon is a winner!

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  44. I love the idea of a notebook of collected words and ideas. I might have to become a copycat.

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  45. This is one of the highest comments I have seen for a single poem that says something. good work

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  46. Love that "Betty Boop of fruit".
    It's a lemon!
    The short ones are fun, aren't they? Nonetheless complex however.

    Kat

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  47. Great one Tess, but especially love the Betty Boop of Fruit" line.

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  48. What a fantastic poem! Just the right measurement of bitterness. Love "sugar hides a multitude" and the ending is perfect.

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  49. I think you, Uncle Steve, and I can still sell it for 5 cents a glass out on the side yard.
    xoxo Unks

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  50. Okay! You set up the card table and make the sign. I'll bring the sugar and the lemons. xx

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  51. Thanks for this tart little poem, Tess!

    I'll never think of lemons the same way. Betty Boop forever.

    I happen to love lemons, though, but maybe they're really just an excuse to consume sugar!

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  52. Love what this picture has inspired in so many Tess! Good muse.

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  53. Enjoyed the read Tess -- tart, taught, tantalizing...! Also, really found the image in your header to be captivating, is that you...?

    ...rob
    Image & Verse

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  54. Excellent...chilling ending. You're poetry is...(searching for words...) wow!

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  55. Martin T & Brigid saw the hearts
    too, and I counted 5-6 of them;
    so very macabre, dark and delicious.
    You certainly threw out the darkest
    of challenges and the magpies
    are flocking loudly, like a brace
    of bloody crows, a flock of ravens,
    blackness turned red upon the
    pitted citrus yellow, dripping hot
    onto the antique silverware, and
    this challenge sears the tender
    souls of the meek, and hardens
    the resolve of those poetic birds
    that hang on the wire, afraid to
    unfurl their black wings, flick
    their red tongue, and fly off,
    dropping into the abyss, with
    their poem clutched and wrapped
    onto one leg, winging toward
    the nest, the manor, and the heart
    of madness splattered with mirth.

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  56. Glenn, I'll have what you're having.

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  57. ooo...like this. It's Very lemon.

    My favorite is at the end:

    but it's no good to be
    both hungry and afraid.

    well done!

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  58. I have a feeling Tess, that you could take any two lines of that memorable verse and write a thesis on them.

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  59. Lovely write, Tess...You're poetry is
    amazing. Love it :)
    All the best
    Marinela x

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  60. Tons of textures hide in this zesty piece. So very lovely!

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  61. "Sometimes, no matter how
    hard you try, lemonade
    can’t be made from a lemon."

    I always get learning from your illuminating words, Tess.

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  62. Wow that is creative. I am always amazed at your Magpies.
    QMM

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  63. Don't know if you ever venture down to central Kentucky, but there's a place south of Lexington commonly referred to as Shaker Village. It was the Shaker settlement of Pleasant Hill back when they were active, and now it's restored to give visitors a feel for their culture. One can even stay overnight! Anyway, they have a really nice restaurant, and one of their specialties is lemon pie. I know what you're thinking: lemon pie? What's not to love? Most. Bitter. Pie. Ever!

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  64. Good grief...forgive me, I didn't even tell you how much I liked your poem! Great prompt...made for an interesting day in this household, anyway :-)

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  65. A rather shocking-but-excellent prompt, but I'm sure you've already heard that. :)

    Enjoyed this poem immensely, especially the
    word play in "After the first sweet sip, drips."

    Ah, Tess, you are a woman of words!!

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  66. See, now Tess? This is why I go

    (EVERY TIME)

    for them Meyers.

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  67. I enjoyed the way you made good sense of an enigmatic prompt.

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  68. WOAH... Great write Willow. Great Write. Bisous, Love and Light, S

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  69. .... amazing! I'm with everyone else ... digging the "betty boop fruit"!!! Bravo!!!

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  70. Thanks for your exceptional comments, dear readers. You make writing poetry pure joy. x

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  71. Hunger and fear combined make for disaster and disappointment. Love this, Tess.
    Mine is so different...
    http://www.kimnelsonwrites.com/2011/03/02/ideal-afternoon/

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  72. Thought I had commented on this before, but I guess I was having a brain cramp. Anyway, I like the word pictures a lot "After the first sweet sip, drips a brutal aftertaste." That is an eloquent statement of a fairly common phenomenon. Nicely done. Vb

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  73. After reading your pleasing poem, I put it to the test. And you're right! Blood CAN'T be squeezed from a turnip.

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  74. No good indeed!

    My favorite mag so far.

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  75. Your poem 'wows' me! I love Betty Boop. I am new to Magpie Tales, but am happy to be here.

    ~laurie

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  76. Okay, so I'm usually the doom and gloom type, but this one...well I may be the only one who sees Cherry juice and not blood. Note to self: 'Food always prevails.'

    Great Magpie, Tess, love your approach and I, too, will never see or hear Betty Boop again without recalling your wonderful poem.

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  77. Great potential in the prompt, and a very accomplished poem in your response.

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  78. beautiful poem and it gently goes right through the heart!

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  79. You said it, Tess!!
    "Sometimes, no matter how
    hard you try, lemonade
    can’t be made from a lemon." -- I LOVE these lines, and totally share your sentiment...

    What is sour, stays sour... it needs a lot of help "covering up"... the closing lines were a KILLER!!
    A power-packed poem, my friend!!

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  80. What a delight! Both image and your words! Thanks

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  81. Tess,

    Bold and unashamed of herself, a Boop girl never fails to surprise our taste.

    Always fed and assured by your writings!

    Trulyfool

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  82. Very very nice. "Sugar hides a multitude..." Beautiful ending. Thank you.

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  83. Beautiful! You're a wonderful poet. :o)

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  84. aah! Loved the bloodstained lemon.

    The Betty boop of fruit....made me think of Tom Robbins (who I don't like but sometimes gets a lick in anyway) describing the beet (actually, I just went and checked the quote, and I still dislike him just as intensely as before! What an awful man).

    I liked your poem just fine, though - and thanks for it. This Web of all of ours can be a very decorative thing, with each of us daubing away. It's so fun to have more poetry than news on my news page every day.

    later -
    Peter

    Peter

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  85. Wonderful....but I'm afraid of being hungry - though, heaven knows, I could easily miss a meal or a dozen!

    Mine is at:

    http://rnsane.blogspot.com/2011/03/magpie-tales-55-its-not-nice-to-eat.html#links

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  86. There is nothing that hasn't been been already said and so I will say tangy,sweet, sugary, Lime and lemony!!

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  87. 'In Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes' - a Quaker lemon in Betty Boop guise, your poem speaks to everyone.

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Inject a few raisins of conversation into the tasteless dough of existence.
― O. Henry (and me)