Begin with an orange.
Give it teeth and a top hat.
Bring it to work and set it on your desk.
Say it’s your uncle
Uncle Orange
who won the California State Lottery,
put your kids through college,
and took you on a cruise to Barcelona.
They will be jealous
and wish they had an Uncle Orange
as colossal as yours.

They will prop apples and pears on their computers
and dress them in petticoats or tuxedos,
calling them Gramma Smith or Marjorie…
maybe Angus,
but it won’t be the same.
They’ll even try pineapples –
dressing the tall, leafy stalks with laurels, palms,
and their finest pearl necklaces.
But it still won’t compare
to your darling Uncle Orange
and the scent his body permeates
throughout the office.
He even smells good after a game of rugby,
unlike your husband.
Yes, they’ll be quite jealous of the smile
you arrive with every morning.

Even after your husband leaves
you will still smile,
clutching a one-way ticket to Barcelona,
feeling citrus-good and drunk
on fuzzy navels.

LISA MARIE BRODSKY is the author of poetry collections, “We Nod Our Dark Heads” (Parallel Press, 2008), and “Motherlung” (Salmon Poetry, 2014), which received an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Library Association. Her poetry has been published in The North American Review,  Mom Egg Review, The Peacock Journal, Diode Poetry Journal, Verse Wisconsin, SUSAN/The Journal, Poetry Quarterly, The Drowning Gull, Linden Avenue Literary Journal, Poetry South, Willawaw Journal, and has work forthcoming in Barrow Street, Wraith Infirmity Muses, Inklette, among others. As faculty member at All Writers’ Workplace & Workshop, Brodsky teaches classes on emotional healing through creative writing. Her web site can be found at: www.lisamariebrodsky.blogspot.com