an orange devours
the crusts of clouds and you,
getting up, put on
your daily life
grown somewhat shabby, worn
but comfortable, like old jeans: at the least,
familiar.
Author's note:
My favourite thing about Jeanette Winterson's book "Oranges are not the only fruit", much before finishing the book itself, is the quotes spiralling on social media that brought me to it. There’s no choice that doesn’t mean a loss, I read somewhere and I wondered: what choice? what loss? and it brought me to some of the most beautiful texts I have ever read, one of which is:
As it is, I can’t settle, I want someone who is fierce and will love me until death and know that love is as strong as death, and be on my side for ever and ever. I want someone who will destroy and be destroyed by me. There are many forms of love and affection, some people can spend their whole lives together without knowing each other’s names. Naming is a difficult and time-consuming process; it concerns essences, and it means power. But on the wild nights who can call you home? Only the one who knows your name.
I remember also, this song called Golden Girl by Frank Ocean (ft. Tyler the Creator) —
Y'all, I conclude that sharing an orange is an act of love.
At lunchtime I bought a huge orange —
The size of it made us all laugh.
I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave —
They got quarters and I had a half.
And that orange, it made me so happy,
As ordinary things often do
Just lately. The shopping. A walk in the park.
This is peace and contentment. It’s new.
The rest of the day was quite easy.
I did all the jobs on my list
And enjoyed them and had some time over.
I love you. I’m glad I exist.
Wendy Cope: The Orange
The first time I walked
With a girl, I was twelve,
Cold, and weighted down
With two oranges in my jacket.
Gary Soto: Oranges
400 Lux by Lorde so perfectly encapsulates the feeling of companionship born from boredom and how sometimes you love someone in a quiet n comfortable way but there’s this like…. atmosphere of sadness and anxiety abt the future that you don’t address n you’re both escaping: “you keep the car on while you’re waiting out front// you buy me orange juice”
"She peels an orange, separates it in perfect halves, and gives one of them to me. If I could wear it like a friendship bracelet, I would. Instead I swallow it section by section and tell myself it means even more this way. To chew and to swallow in silence with her. To taste the same thing in the same moment."
Nina Lacour: We Are Okay
