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Home>Stories>Enjoy a Poem Inspired by Emien Etting’s “Flying Fruit”

Art & Society

# Enjoy a Poem Inspired by Emien Etting’s “Flying Fruit”

 min read

*Food is a basic human need. In our Food for Thought series, James Beard Award–winning journalist, scholar, and writer Cynthia Greenlee hosts a gathering of historians, food journalists, poets, chefs, and farmers and invites them to riff on food-related works of art in our permanent collection.*

Emlen Etting, *Flying Fruit*, c. 1936, screenprint, Reba and Dave Williams Collection, Gift of Reba and Dave Williams, 2008.115.1650

**Flying Fruit***After the print by Emien Etting*Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Of all the citrus flavors in my amusement park mouth,of course it’s the lemon that leaps farthest. It makes my face

squinch and squint even when I know what’s coming. Behindthat, the bite of an orange surges such a surf-line, I half expectto see a Hawaii Five-0 wave crush just behind my tongue. After

that comes the lime, and it’s not hard to remember our first kiss—the zest and rest I finally felt with you. The rind is twisted

and torn into my glass of gin (and yours too) and soon weare laughing too loud in the middle of the afternoon. Even ifwe shuffle home, arm in arm, I promise to make moments

like these feel like flying. We’re winners. We get to bring the goldfishin a bowl home. We get to snack on funnel cakes and a sackful

of kettle corn. At home I’ll serve us up a dish with a dollopof lime pickle on the edge of our plate. Ring the bell. I will bringthe heat, the heart—you’ll never want to get off this carousel.

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## Discover more Food for Thought

Introducing the Food for Thought Series
In this series, chefs, farmers, historians, scholars, and other thinkers share their takes on food, consumption, cooking, and eating.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Table: Breaking Bread in Troubled Times
This image of the Kings hosting guests for Sunday lunch captures the power of sharing a meal—and taking a picture.

Making Pictures of the Animals We Eat
When Dutch artist Willem van Aelst painted dead animals, did he use the images to grapple with the full circle of life?

Dressing for Dinner in the Gilded Age
This 19th-century dinner dress captured in the Index of American Design gives us a glimpse of how the wealthy dressed for dinner.

Eldzier Cortor Takes Us Inside the Slaughterhouse
Through his surrealist woodcut, Cortor considers the relationship between humans and animals and tells the stories of Black bodies.

**Aimee Nezhukumatathil***Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the author of the*New York Times*bestselling essay collection*World of Wonders*and four collections of poetry. Her work has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and a poetry grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. She is poetry editor of*Sierra*, the Sierra Club’s magazine, and is professor of English in the University of Mississippi’s master of fine arts program.*

December 07, 2022

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