OF GRANNY SMITH'S
GREEN APPLES
--OR, OF REVOLUTIONIZING
LIFE
IN SMALL BUT EFFICACIOUS WAYS
Dedicated to Granny Smith,
inventor of the Granny Smith-type apple
"You must revolutionize your life"--old, recurring radical slogan
1.
Sometimes, even when it feels necessary, it's hard to improve upon
much less "Revolutionize Your Life"--as some
people,
somewhat grandiosely I think, tend to phrase
it;
But at least--if we begin with relatively small, well-defined things--
it's possible I believe,
To change things by Making Things Just A Little But Better
Take, for example, eating Apples! Obviously, it's possible to effect
just such an Improvement, with respect to eating
Apples!
For example: most people seem to believe that the apples that they're fed
Should always be colored Red. (It's easy to remember I guess,
That Apples in general, are usually colored Red--I suppose that the image
most people have there, somewhere in the backs
of their
minds when they reach into a grocery-store-bin
to select their apples
Are Apples which are famous, like the well-known apple given to Snow
White
by the Witch--even though that Apple was obviously
a totally deplorable Apple,
& is said to have made its victim fall asleep
for years & years);
& Then there's that historically far more famous & rather more
attractive Apple, supposedly given to Adam by
Eve
--The Eden-Apple, that is, the Apple alas (or else maybe unAlas?)
Of Too Much Knowledge. They were both Red, weren't they?
& Yet there's of course another kind of Apple & another color
of Apple
that isn't Red at all
--It's known in America for example, as the "Granny Smith" type;
&, whoever Granny Smith was, or is,
her Apples have certain
obvious advantages I think,
Which can easily be discovered, beyond the obvious Red!
2.
To begin with, Apples of the Granny Smith-type simply last longer
than the Red type,
& the implications of that are actually quite
tremendous, I think!
--For example whenever you walk into your local fruit-store
You're not likely to be met at the "Granny Smith" bin--nope, not on your
life!--
by a vast mass of purportedly "fresh," and in
any case
always flashily Red Apples doubtless picked just
a few days before that,
But which upon closer inspection (when you pick them up & hold them up
to the light, so as to examine them for any of
those suspicious,
semi-invisible brown spots), all too often you'll
see
May already be well on the way to becoming one-quarter or maybe even
fully half-rotten--so that if, for example, you
happen to be on your way to work,
& happen to be desperate to buy your Apple-A-Day
then and there, right away
First you gotta squeeze the damn things, feeling around between those
hard-to-see,
possibly rotten Apple spots
To determine if they're still what they seem; & are still relatively
firm &
(yuk!) without a wayward worm.
3.
& So sometimes, despite all your valiant efforts to find a perfect
Apple,
it's easy to end up hurriedly grabbing virtually
any Apple,
Eating it sooner or later around the possibly rotten spots--uncovering minor
pockets
of annoying, unhealthy brown graininess with
every bite-full (yuk & double-yuk!).
4.
Nope! Not on your life!--there's none of that with the greenish,"Granny Smith"-type Apple!
--For even though they're not flaming show-offs, uniformly jacketed in
peels
of radical Red, but rather in color are a kind
of cool, somewhat skeptical, acid-green,
with some types later on even turning a kind
of Mellow Gold
& Have got, of all pleasantly surprising things, tiny little speckles
all over their jackets
(which to my mind at least, suggests incipient
merriment; & jolly, albeit minuscule
polka-dots)
Oh, how they do gratify the taste buds, tongue, & teeth; &
(unlike the kind which are
so aggressively Red)
Oh how They please, oh yes how they genuinely please
Not just the body, but also the inquiring mind!
Because, with a Granny Smith-type Apple--just as with any good Idea
that's firm
& solid & likely to prove valid--
You can tell what you're getting into beforehand, before you buy it!
5.
So, if you're looking for a nice way to change, if not exactly
"Revolutionize"
your life, in a small, modest & conservative,
but definitely efficacious way
I'd suggest trying for example (especially if you haven't tried them
ever!),
Granny Smith's Apples! After all
Even beyond beginning to change your life in small, sensibly
perspicacious ways
(instead of maybe filling your mouth & perhaps
even your entire head, in effect,
With a lot of quasi-rotten tastes & vague unflavors which remind me,
at least, of feelings which smack of bad-apple
Bad Ideas)
--Yes even beyond all that, wouldn't you like, too
To help perpetuate the memory of an ingenious, inventive, highly
original
yet obviously also completely down-to-earth old
lady
Who was probably also--I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts!--
A nice, tasteful, forward-looking & also All-Around Good Person?
'Of Granny Smith's Apples'
Is poetry about fruit & in particular, a poem about
being careful about how you select your apples.
It's also a political poem about gradual change--& a poem about effecting
personal change, too, gradually & naturally.
It appeared in The Paris Review in l994, © l994
Michael Benedikt. This Webversion, © 2001 Michael Benedikt.
Historical Note re the Apple: The origins of the tart, green Granny
Smith Apple are somewhat shrouded in mystery.
Some say it was lst seeded on Australian soil in the 1860's, from French
crabapple stock by an Aussie grandmother named
Mrs. Smith (Marie Ana Smith). Others claim that this apple has American
origins--perhaps because it's so widely cultivated & popular
in USA. At any rate, American soil too, appears to have contributed to the
development of this unusual, International Apple.
Dear
Ideas
The
Thesaurus
Right
In Middle Of Everything
Folonari Red Wine
Time
Is A Toy
Of Panty-Lines
That Show
Of Granny Smith's Green Apples
Of Sexual Style
Einstein
'Your
Life Is Your Own Life...'
Of
'Turning Away'...
Next Poem at This Site-- "Of Sexual Style"
Home Page of 'The Thesaurus & Other New Verse'
