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.
