Directions for Eating a Mango

Instruction in eating a mango

should be given in winter

in a New England kitchen

with sunlight on the hair

of the teacher, who should

look like you.

She should pick up a knife

to slice the ripe fruit in two

cutting each side of the flat

seed leaving the middle

sliver of gold flesh by the sink

while she serves two halves

with sharp spoons.

Let all who watch her imagine

her walking, selecting mangoes

in an East Asian market, the sun

gilding her hair as she walks.