ODE TO AN ONION: On the Metaphysics of the Olfactory

I.

Your long, waxy leaves,
a sprawl of vivid green,
slump toward the earth,
a lazy curve
cradling
your quiet, bulbous base.

II.

Yes,
your olfactory overloads
of peppery, piquant pungence
prick my nostrils
with no sense of shame!
Pricking the air with brazen pungence,
you stung my very thoughts.

III.

I peel you back,
shedding rings of your enigma,
and with each tear-filled layer,
I find nothing but another layer.
Could philosophy itself be so honest,
yet so unapologetically zingy?


Ron:   (with a playful, thoughtful look) You know, I was just thinking... aren't we like onions?

Lex:   (pausing, genuinely intrigued) Well, that's a fresh one. That metaphor has some zing. 
       Why? Certainly all people are multi-dimensional.

Lis:   (nodding slowly, connecting the idea to her own philosophical framework) Or what is 
       distinguishing is peripheral and what is core is sometimes unclear. Perhaps existence 
       itself is what Szymborska calls "the idiotism of perfection" — as if each layer 
       just a perfect, self-contained sheath of being.

Linda: (A dry chuckle escaping her lips) Sounds a lot better than peeling back the skin 
       of discontent. At least with a perfect idiocy, 
       you know what you're getting.


=====================================================================================
from _Last Poems: Lost Poems_ by T Newfields
SUMMARY: Sensuous adulations to Allium cepa and a zesty worldview.
KEYWORDS: onions, concentric identities, vegetative metaphors, sensual verse, allium

Author: T Newfields [Nitta Hirou / Huáng Yuèwǔ] (b. 1955 - )
Begun: 1985 Nagoya, Japan  ✠  Finished: 2025 Shizuoka, Japan
Creative Commons License: Attribution. {{CC-BY-4.0}}  

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TRANSLATIONS

ESPAÑOL   https://www.tnewfields.info/es/cebolla.htm
NIHONGO   https://www.tnewfields.info/jp/tamanegi.htm
ZHŌNGWÉN  https://www.tnewfields.info/zh/cong.htm