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Per Olvmyr

ORANGES I-XV

I
The orange is usually a very quiet and sedentary fruit.

II
Its shape is mighty round and peculiarly chubby, but it would prefer to be
even rounder.

III
Weighing it in your hand it suddenly seems to carry exactly its own
weight.

IV
The orange peel encloses the orange inside its peel.

V
All oranges wear orange suits.

VI
Considered as a tool the orange is oddly blunt.

VII
Oranges look like breasts that don’t look like breasts.

VIII
As soon as an orange starts rolling, it makes sure to put the gear in neutral
and releases the clutch.

IX
Sometimes its initiative consists in rolling off a kitchen table and onto the
floor with a thick thump.

X
The significant thud against the floor is usually preceded by an almost
equally loud imagined significant thud.

XI
Oranges are very difficult to build and seem very self-conscious about it.

XII
Appreciating tenderness, they like to be petted, but at the same time are
drawn to knife edges.

XIII
Quite often they seem to think they are planets.

XIV
They are particularly comfortable in the area between the neck and the
shoulder, with the head tilted to the same side.

XV
In the end, all that remains are the orange peels, hardened after a day or so
– that, and your empty hands.

 

About the writer:
Per Olvmyr is a writer of absurdist fiction, prose and poetry. He lives in Malmö, Sweden, and has been published by literary magazines in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Norway.

Image: Man with an Orange by Stanislaw Lentz (1861-1920). Oil on canvas. 31.1 x 24.4 inches. 1914. Public domain.

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