Melons
by Rustin Larson
This is Michael Carey for Voices from the Prairie a weekly sampling from
the rich soil of Iowa’s literary tradition. Today’s author is Rustin
Larson born in Des Moines but living now in Fairfield in southeast Iowa with
his wife Caroline and their three lovely daughters Katharine, Sarah and Julia.
His poem is entitled "Melons." If you’re a good poet almost anything
can be a metaphor for almost anything else -- even a stray melon in the grocery
store can set the soul spinning. We’ve all felt at times "melan-choly"
or compared certain male and female body parts to this delicious food. If you’ve
a mind to, the world itself can be seen as one huge celestial orb of fruit;
melons can stand for: hope, faith, even love or the seeming lack of it. Mr.
Larson, in this short and amusing piece, can hardly stop the subtle flow of
associations.
Melons
You bought one, perfectly ripe,
but within days
little holes appeared
and it began to shrink from inside
like a consumptive.
Time after time we’d buy the sweet smelling globes
and they’d rot.
You said we had bad luck with melons.
I said we were cursed.
and so it was we wandered the earth
dreaming
of the perfect incorruptible melon.
We would walk by a woman
and think of melons. We would walk by a man
with large knees and think of melons.
Even when we were spending money on clothes
we would think we were dealing out melon leaves,
thick and prickly, always leaving
a trace on our hands. Our shoes became
melon rinds, and our fingers, slivers of ripe
yellow melon. So when was it we stopped
thinking of these things? I think it was
the day in the supermarket when
you said to me, "Rus, I can’t live
like this anymore!" and walked off,
leaving me to contemplate the absence of melons
and their traces, their juices and their mold.
"Why should I live like this either? I thought,
and sat down on a crate, and weighed
my big round head in my hands.
"Melons" by Rustin Larson
from his book Loving the Good Driver published by Mellen Poetry Press.
For Voices from the Prairie and Humanities Iowa, this is Michael Carey hoping you continue to hear the music blooming all around you.
Biography
Rustin Larson was born in Des Moines, Iowa. He was educated in Iowa and later earned an M.F.A from Vermont College of Norwich University. He is currently serving as a Poet-in-residence through the Iowa Arts Council. His poetry has appeared in numerous publications including: The New Yorker, America, Poetry East, Cimarron Review and Boundary 2. Loving the Good Driver, published by Mellen Poetry Press in 1996, is his first book. He lives in southeast Iowa with his wife, Caroline and their three daughters: Katharine, Sarah and Julia.