Cherries and plums

I just had a craving for cherries, which I bought from a fruit man today.

Brief digression. There's a fruit man near me who always greets me and acts pleased to see me...but he calls me ma'am. Isn't that the worst word in the English language (well, one of them)? I should tell him to never, ever use it (very politely of course, so as not to hurt his feelings).

Anyway, these are the first cherries I had this season. I had become a watermelon person. But I saw these cherries winking up at me from the fruit cart, and I had to have them.

And eating them...they were so good...reminded me of a poem I saw on the subway a while ago. The New York City Transit Authority, among other things, puts poetry on the subway. Some of it is not so good. I love this one.

This is Just to Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast.

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold.

-- William Carlos Williams

Comments

Anonymous said…
I love that poem, too. I have it in my kitchen. :)

Cherries...mmmm. Do you have a cherry pitter?
Kristen said…
now i want some cherries too!
Reighnie said…
I remember that poem from spanish class. We had to translate it from spanish to english.

I have a bag of ice cold cherries in the fridge right now:-)
Bearette said…
Liz - actually I don't, but it sounds like a very good invention! is it the kind of thing they have at williams sonoma (there is one near me)?

Kristen - maybe with ice cream :)

ZM - was it written in spanish originally? i never knew that.
Cherry Popcorn said…
I get what you mean too!!! Ma'm just makes me sound so old!!! Haha..

I don't normally read poems but that particular poem is so cute!!! Haha..
Mz.Elle said…
Anybody who writes a poem about fruit is my hero:)

I love cherries,nectarines too..
Anonymous said…
You can get them at WS, and other places...mine might be Pampered Chef.

It's fun, shooting the pits through the air. Not really necessary for a small snack of cherries, but it comes in handy if you want to pit a bunch at one time.
Roxanne said…
I think a good alternative to ma'am would be "miss". Although I think most people use ma'am to address a woman they don't know just because it's more common, not necessarily because they think you're too old to be a miss.

Mmmm, cherries. I think we should all go to Liz's and make cherry pie. :)
Bearette said…
Sounds yummy!

I agree, I think he might not even be familiar with "miss" because English isn't his first language (he has an Indian accent). But the "ma'am" might be costing him customers ;)
Amy said…
Love the poem! The only type of cherry I can eat is the maraschino (sp?) type. You can usually get them in little jars.
Katie said…
I love that poem. We actually spent two days on it in one of my lit classes during senior year at UT.

Mmm...cherries...yummy.
Bearette said…
Amy - but the fresh ones are so much better!! you should try them :)
Irene said…
I beg to differ. There is a worse word than "MA'AM" in the Englisgh language... and it is "MADAM". When I used to manage a chain of jewelry shops, I had employees who actually called me that and it made me positively cringe. ;p
Anonymous said…
I think ma'am doesn't bother me too much probably because all of my jobs in high school and college were service-related, and I had to find a way to address strangers. Maybe we should invent a unoffensive term to refer to someone we don't know instead of using sir or ma'am. "Sam," or "Mir." :)

Maybe you could introduce yourself to the fruit man? "Call me ___."
Bearette said…
Irene - you are right. that is AWFUL!! ugh. ;)

Kitkat - that's a smart idea, though it requires some measure of courage. i'm always shy about introducing myself in situations like that.

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