Blog 6: Poetry Selection

LEMON

She spun it on the chopping board,

a short blade in hand

about to split

it. I interjected by telling her

how a barman in Rhodes once told me

a lemon is like the original breast

-- seething in its skin

and bitter to the mouth

that kisses it.

"Yes," she said,

"but I'm not your mother,"

and she cut it in two.

Sebastian Levy



The first time I read the poem I would rank my understanding a 3

The second I would rank my understanding a 6

The first time I read the poem I took it as literal as possible. I just imagined a person about to cut into a lemon, and then a girl detesting to her cutting into the lemon and supporting her argument with some support. Support being what the barman told her. I read it a second time and then I thought maybe this poem is sexual. The author uses such words as breast, seething, and kisses. I thought the barman was explaining the lemon as when a mother breast feeds her baby. The other lady then states that she is not her mother, which could of been an indicator that she might of been hitting on the other girl. After I read it a third time I continued with my second understanding but then thought that instead of her hitting on the girl that maybe her reaction was to belittle the barman's explanation. She thought that it was an idiotic interpretation. My understanding went from a literal understanding to a more "out of the box" understanding.