Challenge.2 :: 5 items

[abiona]

In a poem of any structure, format, and length...

Choose an item to fill each of the categories listed below.
Use all five of the items in your piece.

A place
A body part
A food
A month
A color

I'll start it off so you can see what I mean.

enjoy!

[abiona]

tangerines and perspiration

august
in lafayette
where
southern hospitality is synonymous with
twin rocking chairs
on wrap-around porches
and tangerines-
bright orange
peels removed
in one quick motion
twisted citrus snakes
collecting at feet
juice dripping off chins and
running down arms
mixing with
humidity
pressing into
crooks of elbows
sliding down spines to
collect in pools
at the smalls of backs.

we press ice cubes to foreheads
and fan ourselves with free hands
content to just exist
in the sticky sweetness of bayou summer

[Soule]

I walked for countless miles,
on a journey to Mars.
Climbing the stairway to Heaven,
each step harder than the last.
The pressure,
forcing my head to hang low.
Squeezing it like an Orange,
blood flowing from my nose,
flooding the stairway.
It's Christmas,
December 25th, 2012.
My veins, ice cold, for you.
Blue, purple, black.
I loved you,
I walked eternity for you.
I fell for you.

[MoMaui]

New Zealand August
Ripe Kiwifruit green inside
Freshly picked by hand

[spokenoh]

we were shadows,
drops of dusk stretching thin
like a crop of harvest hair
bending at the corners
of day,
earlobes dancing under
the jawline of January
in a sinking sunset

when day rose,
as an ugly flower pressed
between the book's covers
the taste of tangerine
squeezed itself
onto chins nuzzled
from faces too stark
for morning birdsong
and we closed our aching eyes
to dreams of Norway.

[artisan.]

She reimbursed me with frank conversation,
tucking pink wig hairs behind ears that never flushed
and mentioning how strawberry was the only Frappacino
she likes-- close enough to Thank you.

Her gait was uncompromising, we never sat

down the sidewalk was Chopsticks. Open! flashing in red,
which had much more agreeable benches
than Starbucks, plus green was not her thing.

We made time for sushi and coffee, sometimes
gossip and a pinch of curiosity, which made
stomaching each other less painful.

I was alone, and she was miserable.

September welcomed her, and I was obliged.