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Robin Gow 

guessing the flavors

all the jelly beans
cut themselves in half:
cross section of a sugar gel.
sweet like a mouth floating above 
the city taking its time chewing.
i'm putting jelly beans 
in a mouth not my own. i'm guessing
the flavors: green blue 
maybe popcorn maybe marshmallow.
the flavor of a marshmallow
is somehow closer to orange
than white. jelly beans clack 
as they drop on the hardwood floor
from the ceiling where
a vine invites them in. 
someone is sneezing.
someone is allergic to jelly. 
if i had a garden i would pour 
sugar instead of dirt. 
i would take a spoon out 
into the mounds & scoop a tiny bit
for my coffee. 
a coffee flavored 
jelly bean. teach all the vegetables 
to be sweeter 
& cut them in half.
i run my fingers over tomatoes
& tease the skin of celery-- 
eat only
jelly beans & be as happy 
as their name suggests.
i might be a different person 
if i ate more frivolously. 
i'm imagining meals of gummy peach rings
with a bowl of skittles.
jelly beans with a spoon.
the mouth stops chewing
& tries to recognize the strange taste--
maybe tropical flavor.
if i was still ten years old 
i would feed myself like this
& my hair would be licorice 
& lush & birds would try to take
snippets of it as i walk down
the street. i don't know what
i should eat. i don't know
if i should eat anything.
i have teeth that sometimes
look like jelly beans
in the right light. i have
a whole mouth full. i bite 
my tongue chewing-- i guess
the flavor: metal. 
the vine drops more beans 
& i kneel down to collect them. 

mario_loprete_untitled_concrete_sculptur
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