Grandpa's Hands On Cactus Pears. Poem by Sarah Mkhonza

These days I miss grandpa's hands
handing me the soft, seedy, sweet
and reddish contents of the cactus
pear.

He splits the fruit and I see red.
Follow with my eyes his surgery on
the cactus pear. Opened my saliva
already tastes the bite to vome.
Taste buds singing in my mouth I wait.

When the momen comes, I seize it and
let it stop. My mouth
rolls the sweetness in and sparks
Of joy fill myvheart. I will stand
in this moment forever.

The shot is made. Grandpa stands smiling
everywhere I go. His knife on one hand,
my piece on the other. He smiles
at me from thee world.

This smile seals a deal we made
that I would not forget.
That I would receive always
this gift of the cactus pair.

Our lone tree gone, I still
enjoy.His gift as I look at
his life hardened thumbrella
lines running down the hardened
nail. I take my cactus pair.





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