Unclasp your garlic gingerly
Place the pink-ribbed corset aside
If the nudity of the bulb offends
Opt for the soup or pâté alternative
Grip the clove’s belly like a pen
Rasp back and forth over the toast
Releasing its hot breath. Rub on
Until flesh shreds and fingers stick
Now select the paunchiest tomato
Slack as velvet and long on the vine
Squeeze the seed sack until it bursts
Mash over the crusted furrows
Gloss with green oil
Spray with a necklace of sea salt
Exchange for stars
From the night-eyed woman
Sitting opposite, bare footed
Repeat a thousand times
Through harvest years and fallow
Until the last unclasping
Shortlisted in the 2014 Wasafiri International New Writing Prize.
Mark Fiddes 