How to eat an avocado
    after Wallace Stevens

Run your blade
along the contours
of a ripe avocado.
 
Enjoy the sensation
of pitted leathery skin
opening to a smooth interior.
 
Observe with respect
the heart, half-naked
in a solid green ocean.
 
Scoop it out gently.
You will never attain
its silent perfection.
 
Find your loveliest plate
and a shiny new spoon
then sit. Savour
 
mouthful after mouthful
of creamy rich flesh.

Susan Jane Sims

published in Reach 140, Indigo Dreams Press, 2010