Still Life with Fruit

This overripe melon

came from a cornucopia

of unseasonable offerings

at the market,

where all is available

every month.

What’s seasonal in December

around here anyway?

All I know is,

December’s dark freeze

easily destroys

the leggy new growth of May,

penetrating until she’s crushed,

seeds strewn across ice.

detail from Still Life with Fruit, Severin Roesen, 1852

For Margaret’s prompt to the Real Toads featuring this painting by Severin Roesen. Number 21 of 30 Poems in November to benefit Center for New Americans.