Week 2 - Introduction to Poetry
An orange,
The line makes me think of the fruit with all that entails like the citrus taste and smell.
It's a fruit full of life, you imagine yourself eating it as it tastes like sunshine. Once you peel it, your fingers are coated from the citrus oils, as it clings to your skin like a memory.
Simple and clean, round, bright, sweet and fragrant.
squeezed on the hands,
To squeeze an orange would entail the juice itself as well and how it may smell and eventually may make your hand become sticky as well as colored orange. The feeling of the orange being squeezed might be akin to the feel of orange pulp in your hands.
sweet sticky juice hitting a hand and dripping through the fingers leaving behind perhaps the sticky sweet tangy aroma behind.
It feels sticky, you can smell the juice but also the oils from the peel. You can feel the pulp burst and you can feel the peel crack under the pressure of your knuckles.
is an adequate substitute
The change is robotic or like a statement from some professional that one would be given as a recommendation to follow.
This one line, to me, is almost sad. It's the fall of the hero. We've gone from this beautiful object of an orange, an image of life; now, it's described quite lifelessly as "an adequate substitute".
We are now confused, wondering what could such a mess be "an adequate substitute" for? It makes us readers ponder what could this mess truly signify.
for soap and water.
This startles me and makes me think on why an orange is used on the hands.
This line is explaining why an orange is an adequate substitute for soap and water as it can mask the dirt and smell on the hands, as a statement not giving the reader roam to dispute the statement.
This final lines changes the shape and function of the poem by comparing a mess to something that cleans; they smilingly contradicts each other
"The Florida Citrus Grower's Association Responds to a Proposed Law Requiring Handwashing Facilities in the Fields"
There was a law that was proposed from the Florida Citrus Growers to have workers wash their hands in the facilities after squeezing oranges. Giving us the workers perspective on how it feels to squeeze oranges before washing your hands, and how much work it takes to do it over and over again.
the citrus growers Associations were mocking the law that was being proposed by claiming that the oranges that were being picked were adequate from of sanitation for the workers hands in place of soap and water.
It gives us the context of what is going on, which then influences the meaning from something contemporary to something more literal. It is a demanding defense for farm workers
"The Florida Citrus Grower's Association Responds to a Proposed Law Requiring Handwashing Facilities in the Fields"
An orange,
squeezed on the hands,
is an adequate substitute
for soap and water
...but is it tho?
Espada, MartÃn. Alabanza: New and Selected Poems 1982-2002. W. W. Norton, 2003.