"How to Eat a Poem"

How to Eat a Poem

Don’t be polite.

Bite in.

Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice that

            may run down your chin.

It is ready and ripe now, whenever you are.

You do not need a knife or fork or spoon

or plate or napkin or tablecloth.

For there is no core

or stem

or rind

or pit

or seed

or skin

to throw away.

                                              —Eve Merriam