Grapefruit

‘Eat grapefruit’, they said. ‘It’s good for you’, they said.

So I cut open a ruby red, carefully cut away the shreds of skin

And peered at the berry-like colour within.

Surely something so pretty on the inside

Couldn’t taste like something has died

And spread it’s rotting bile throughout this vile growth?

Ken oath it does, making the fuzz on your neck stand up

And applaud at your reckless abandon for your tastebuds, screaming,

‘Hey Muz! What about us down here?In case it ain’t clear to you yet,

That stuff tastes like regret!’

You know what grapefruit tastes like?

It tastes like an orange who has lost the will to life.

The bitter stabs of living becoming too much

As you suckle those unforgiving juices, you start by thinking, this fruit ain’t so bad,

But the puckered face at the end reliving every drop of sadness that ever led

You to eat it in the beginning, tells you that grapefruit is the enemy,

It isn’t your friend.

They call it the forbidden fruit, a title suited for biblical themes,

But the truth to me, it seems, is that this fruit is the root of all sin,

And within its heart the truth of this never finished fruit

Is that though its s’posed to make you feel light, it kills off your very appetite.

‘But your metabolism!’, they cry out, that fitness guru shouting at you,

Spouting the many virtues of this foul-tasting, nerve-burning yield of Barbados,

No matter the shades of fruit, whether yellow of flesh or red of ruby,

The freshest of fruits will still taste like death or the breath of a meth addict

Wasted, tricked into his first training sesh –

I beg you, don’t go near this nest of supposedly blessed and sour flesh.

Did you know they use grapefruit to eliminate head lice?

Nice huh? That the food you’re treating yourself to

Kills off lesser beings and sends them screaming.

It’s used as well for diarrhoea and dysentery and for topical treatment of facial acne,

Don’t get too excitable be warned, it’s also used for dandruff, warts and corns.

How revolting to have this fruit exalted for its benefits when it still tastes of acid,  

Come on nature, give me a break and make for me a sweet thing

That will bring nutritive relief instead of food grief.

Why is the rule that that which is good for you,

Must always taste so rude?