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It happened to an apple


A vacation sky. Clouds frisked about in a holiday mood. Two apples in an ice-blue bowl engaged in desultory conversation.

Ripe: The kitchen seems so quiet today. Sometimes I wonder what goes on inside.

Riper: I’ve been there once. The first day I got here, I was slightly green and muddy. So they took me to the kitchen and washed me in the glass sink there. Quite a busy place, that one.

Ripe: I can imagine. You have any friends there?

Riper: Not really. In the one time that I was there, there was too much going on. Something bubbled here, something else whistled there – and I saw a couple of huge bowls frothing over.
But I did meet this one fellow in the sink. Rather handsome. He wasn’t an intense sort of fellow, if you know what I mean. Just smooth, sharp, and steel. He’d got something sticky on the head; so he’d been brought in to be washed clean.

Ripe: Same as you.

Riper: Same as me.

Elsewhere Keefer, the knife, jostled under the spoons and forks until one of them asked him to behave himself.

“What’s wrong with you?” asked a dessert spoon.

“I’m cold. I don’t want to be on top,” Keefer whined.

“Okay, come here and stop being such a nuisance,”, said the Spatula and made way.

Meanwhile, Riper noticed something that, sort of, cored him. It’s only possible to be cored if you’re an apple or a pear; but more likely in the case of apples since pears are known to be intrepid fruits.

“Want to trade places?”, asked Riper. ‘You’ll be able to see better from here.”

“Sure!”, exulted Ripe.

So they rolled about until each was in the other’s place.

Julio was in the kitchen, taking out a fresh strudel and carefully surveying the baked expanse. It was perfectly browned and just correctly crusty. A little bit of garnish and it could be served on the lawn for high tea.

He reached across the counter and picked up the closest apple he could lay his hands on.

Ripe was rinsed quickly and patted dry. Then Julio plunged in the cantering mass of cutlery and pulled out a knife.

A couple of minutes later, the strudel was the magnificent center-piece of the silver tray, with translucent slivers of apple.

Meanwhile Keefer dolefully told Spatula, "I wouldn’t have been able to do it. He was so good to talk to."

Betrayal has many faces; just like loyalty.

Comments

madhavan said…
Quite some style
Words dry and cut
Like Ripe
Made me smile

But Ripe Riper
Left me no wiser
Betrayal has faces
Loyalty has faces
We all have faces

So?
Mukta Raut said…
The mirror has two faces, The man with no face.

So, nothing. :-)
madhavan said…
Mukta Raut, dont miserly be
Dont miserly be with words
For we are not dumb animals
And nor are we dumb birds

Dont be surprised, I have a face
(maybe even two,
depending on occasion
and profit too)
But yes, in another place
In a different space

So I say: The mirror has two faces
Rearview mirrors have three
Depending on the angle
My neighbour wears his wife's bangle

Now, this nonsense gets to me
I wonder you are still reading
How many reasons to shut me down
Would you still be needing???
Mukta Raut said…
Never really needed a reason. And you have interesting neighbors. hee hee!
madhavan said…
Droll
Very droll
Lol
Lol
Mukta Raut said…
must we rhyme, every single time?

. .
|
0


That was a smile, by the way. Couldn't get it right.
madhavan said…
No, we must not
rhyme
every single time.
We must only
rhyme
every single time.
To repeat
To repeat...

Also Postum Scriptum Annexurum:

To receive such a smile
I will walk a thousand mile
Upside down
Mukta Raut said…
I've created a monster! :-D
madhavan said…
.. 0
\ /
0 ..
madhavan said…
okay that was like a smile which i couldn't get right but which rhymed.

I couldnt get that right either
Mukta Raut said…
K, madhavan,

A smile that rhymed, huh? You get an 'A' for effort!
madhavan said…
And you get a 'D' for sarcasm.
Hee Hee!
oglidonkee said…
And i knew a girl, who culd drill , rite through your head and those silly braids..... N she got a pal who thinks she is his gal; In a small corner i see they both are making "An Equal Music"

:-<>
Mukta Raut said…
fine, I'll take 'D', you stingy evaluator!

And oglidonkee, you are mad. So there!
madhavan said…
And oglidonkee, you are mad. So there!
bharath said…
yo there! real nice one. enjoyed it much.

You might like Julio Cortazar (Hopscotch), if you have read him. :-)
Mukta Raut said…
Hi bharath,

Nope. Have not read him. Will try to remedy that soon. :-)

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