Monday, May 15, 2006

Split the stickā€”I am there

This morning I cut an apple in half to eat on my drive to work. I noticed later that the knife stroke had, by chance, cut the stem perfectly down the middle, leaving two symmetrical, curving halves. Their inner layers of color and texture were as distinct as an illustration in a textbook of pomology, and as detailed as any fibrous plant-slice one might mount on a slide and view through a microscope. I saved the pieces, and though the stem-cores, originally a vital green, have turned woody and reddish, the fact of the miracle is evident to anyone who might view them.