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eating habits of the old man

for yasunari kawabata, in beauty and sadness

 

when i lost my teeth

all of them

i couldn’t eat loquats

the way i used to

in one, two bites

 

now i glide them against

the soft of my mouth

a pink ridge wrinkled to a smooth roughness

like the insides of a pickled oyster

 

the membrane of the fruit

in a soft crush

juice sucked clean by a regular puckering

the lips almost swallow back mouth

 

when i am through

with the meat of the loquat

i kick the pit out

with the tip of my tongue

 

my wife won’t eat

at the same table

with me and my loquats

but then we never did get along very well

 

i have always loved loquats

and now without teeth

well, the pleasure is double

 

Alan Chong Lau