Innocent

l.i.c, ny

This little slice of melon is the reason I’ve been having trouble getting to work on time, this gentle flesh that gives beneath my teeth and spoils my mouth with honey sweet juice, this melon that I wake up dreaming of and loose track of minutes and hours just for the simple slicing and savoring of it.

I’d like to tell you I grew this melon, a Sycamore Honeydew, but the truth is we just got lucky. It arrived in our grocery delivery. I can confirm that it was grown in the USA. Its little sticker told me so. It turns out you can find out a lot from those little stickers, like that the Smith family, who grew my melon, have been growing melons in Turlock, CA for over 80 years. I think I’ll just have to put some of their shiny seeds into my soil too.

So, I’m late for work again. Blame it on the melon, or the fact that Gerard Butler has been filming The Bounty outside our bedroom window. Either way, I’m innocent.