Found Poem - How To Eat A Guava by Esmeralda Santiago

As children we didn't always wait for
the fruit to ripen.
A green guava is sour and hard.
A ripe guava is yellow although some
varieties have a pink tinge.
As I move toward the apples and pears of adulthood,
I remember how you bite into a green guava,
how you hear the skin, meat and seeds
crunching inside your head.
How the inside of your mouth explodes into spurts of sour.
On the rare occasion of cool nights and plentiful rains,
the guava bushes grow close to the ground.
The branches are laden with ripe juicy guavas with firm and sweet skin
and a pink heart.
I let the guava that smells of summer
afternoons join it's sisters in the Shop and
Save exotic display.
The apples and pears of my adulthood are
predictable and bittersweet,
but the ripe and sour guavas of my
childhood are both bitter and sweet,
reminding me of years past.

Citation : Santiago, Esmeralda. "How To Eat A Guava". New York 2003.