Steve Xerri has been a teacher, musician and designer. He was Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year 2017 and has been published in numerous print and online magazines. His first pamphlet Mutter/Land was recently brought out by Oystercatcher Press, from whose site it may be ordered http://www.oystercatcherpress.com
On Slicing a Quince
Hefty in my hand, knobbled, lopsided,
with starshaped brittle calyx, flocked
gold skin. Locked within, the acid-sweet
taste of slow-stored summer sun, promised
by the musky fragrance filling the kitchen.
The fruit’s hardness takes forceful working,
almost a carpenter’s knack, to pivot a blade
through the granular crunch and bisect
this descendant of Atalanta’s apple landed here
on my scarred board, revealing the asymmetric
offset of the core, each time slightly different,
the expected cluster of russet pips gleaming
in the light of day after months of sleep
lodged in their woody capsule. Always
the same end to the story, the sugared flesh
flushing in slow heat to tender carnelian.
Steve Xerri
