I stood on my tiptoes,
Trying to see more clearly what was hiding
In those baskets too high
For me.
I reached out to feel the fruits:
The apples smooth-and-slightly-sticky,
Red green an yellow like
Jumbled up traffic lights.
The pears,
All pear-shaped
Except for one,
More potato-shaped
Than anything else.
The strawberries,
Red and green some mostly green
Some are hard and some are
–Oops!
Banananas
Lellow and curvy
They look quite bouncy
But they’re not really…
Ay-pric-cots
Small and soft with two bumps like
Little bums!
But they’re orange
And I’ve never seen
An orange bum.
Next cherry
Mum said
Not-the-cherries-ok?
But I like cherries…
But in the cherries there’s something else
A small hand looking for cherries
Touches my small hand
Looking for cherries…
Giggling we quickly take
Our hands away
(Mine has a bit of cherry juice on it now)
And peek under the tablecloth:
It’s a little curly girl with red all over her face
Hands and dress.
Giggling we run away
Except that we run
The same way
To our mums talking and
Being very annoyed when we touch them with our
Sticky hands.
Silly little girls
They say.