Por Favor No Maltratar Los Aguacates
“Please do not
abuse avocados”:
written in black
marker on blue-
lined legal paper
and taped to a box
at a Yonkers bodega.
Someone has felt
for ripeness, deemed
these precious;
one inept squeeze
could bruise
the fruit
and render it
inedible.
I’m no longer
sure if I could pass
for ready, if I’m worthy
of such a sign.
Forever I’ve waited
for competent hands
to protect me
from the careless,
the passersby.
Editor’s Note: My first favorite poems were those written by William Carlos Williams and Theodore Roethke—imagery rules their lines. This poem evokes that sense of wonder I felt as a teen. Its imagery and enjambment belie the underlying introspection of the poem’s narrator. The title is a clever nod to the language of New York’s myriad bodegas.
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