I am not keen on fruit,

though I do have respect for the vegetables

that find themselves hurling their way

on to the dinner table, although I do sometimes suspect

that they are they there to devour me.

I am not keen on fruit

and only partake in the selection of the traditional three

Apples, Cherry and Bananas

from the conglomeration shop that once housed

a Greengrocer’s daughter

to ward off scurvy

and brittle bones

since losing the milkman in the 1970s.

To infuriate the huge supermarket grocer,

the aisles full of bunting and the pledges of

buy one get one free,  special offer on all who

enter with their own trolley and make sure you try

our nut selection…no thanks I will be missing out

that particular nasty habit,

I shall head to the fruit and veg department and pick an

obscure one, one that really should be more well known,

the Australian Horned Melon.

It might look odd but as the other fruits preen themselves

and jockey for position in the carrier bags,

to be in the glass bowl, to make their way

through the digestive system, you have to ask

what exactly has the banana ever offered,

thought of as fruit but really a herb, it cannot make its mind up

what it wants to be,

the cherry, red and purposeful, potential ever high

but sometimes the pips get between the teeth

and the apple, the steadfast choice of those

enamoured by the oak tree and thoughts of

Pastoral Victorian England…what the Hell have they done

that’s new in the Kitchen?

It might not be much,

it might not go down well

but the Horned Melon offers a different choice

of taste, one that if brave enough could see

new recipes flourish under careful scrutiny

and one that might work with my Cornish

Asparagus in May.

Ian D. Hall 2015