How to Peel an Orange as if You are God

Start with the pockmarked rind, plunging fingers

into unfiltered sunlight. Feel the juices

sink into the well-worn spirals of your skin,

staining them a musty orange. Believe

that it is Jupiter you are tearing open,

rather than a thing needed for survival.

Next, peel away the sticky, sallow threads

woven between each segment of fruit. Spend

hours doing this; separating white beads

from the poppy-petal core. When you can taste

the sweet tang of bleeding yellow skies

in a pile beside you, take the orb into your palms

and split the whole of it. Imagine

that it is your brother’s face, and that

you can take the agony from his throat

the same way you pull a thick white rope

from the fruit’s heart. Afterward, split each piece

from the whole like slices of the sun.

Lay them out on the table in a single, imperfect row;

look at how easily Jupiter is returned to dust.

Elsa Kim