Japanese Store-Bought Oranges

Gregory Bennett

Two women
Cast from the same mold
At opposite ends of a simple common-room table
Near the window
Beneath languid, grey light

Peeling 46-yen-cheap, fresh
Store-bought oranges

The first, cuts into the peel
With her thumbnail
Black, polished
Severing skin, avoiding crucial, wet veins

Peels fall away in slices

The other digs deep
Into skin and meat
Juice and seed
With one, two, three, four fingers
And clear, plain fingernails

Fruit falls away in chunks

Simple white table
Ivory bars, large windows
Grey light
And Japanese store-bought oranges

They eat.