Watermelon
by ARHuelsenbeck
it takes both arms to carry you
my green-striped beauty
I can’t wait to plunge my long knife
into your bright red flesh
but first I clear an entire shelf
in the fridge
because you are best when icy cold
while waiting I remember
my childhood end-of-summer ritual
celebrating with green-white-red smiles
juice running down our chins
soaking our t-shirts
and bombarding each other with
seeds fired from our deadly lips
Andrea R Huelsenbeck is a wife, a mother, a grandmother, and a former elementary general music teacher. A freelance writer in the 1990s, her nonfiction articles and book reviews appeared in Raising Arizona Kids, Christian Library Journal, and other publications. She is currently working on a middle grades novel and a poetry collection.