Grandma Eats with a Knife
by Sophie Eden
She tests the flesh with knobbed fingers
short nails that don’t prick the skin
underneath like fat, giving slightly
Skin speckled like a lizard Green
bombed with yellow, orange with
red pink at the head
Blade as long as her pinky The edge
smooth grey The handle wood with
flat gold eyes
She dives the blade in from
the head to the bottom
Light orange water
And again she enters Skinning
with swift long strokes till the
meaty petals curl
She balances a block of flesh
on the flat of the blade slides
it between her lips
Her teeth slick the furry heart
tease the flesh and water
from the promise of more
She sucks the blade dips her fingers into
her mouth Looks at Grandpa with flat
copper eyes.
Grandpa tells me Don’t
run with the scissors it’ll
stab your leg
Grandpa warns me Don’t
lick the yogurt tinfoil it’ll
slice your tongue
Grandpa scolds me Don’t
lean back on two legs the
chair’ll fall.
I pick up the knife and eat like Grandma.
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