What happens when you put Quarto’s staff under a tree by the math lawns? Picnic conversations mingled with the ongoing peeling of mandarins, and a collective poem eventually emerged. Check out our *very* impromptu and chaotic piece! Each line was written by a different staff member; we collected and assembled them to produce this poem. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we loved making it!
Collective Poem
bursting from the ugly white block, the artificial oscar the grouch screams in agony
he bites the orange in half, peel and all, sticky syrup dripping down his chin
oh you girthy green daddy, fondle my small breasts with those slender salad fingers of yours
easy peel mandarins from Westside Market
sour gums, the aftertaste of syrup sticks
orange peeled grass fields, sun-kissed plastic
prickly, smooth, soft – the green fronds reach toward the sky. And the clementines – they’re orange
the blue, orange and purple popsicles are now lost between the blankets
half moon cookies and clementines in a still life painting
a mandarin winks in the sun and a mandarin weeps down a cheek
the clementine peels are on the ground
but I still smell them
I’m like you, covered in spikes that are actually soft, waiting to be someone’s muse, if I can’t be my own
grant the decay and delay around us the opportunity to start again
We also came up with these ‘would you rather’ questions. Feel free to email us your answers – maybe they’ll even inspire you to write some poetry or prose, or create some visual art! :)
Would you rather…
go a year without reading a poem or without reading a novel?
only eat fruit snacks instead of fruit or have to run across the street every time you cross?
always be falling in love but never able to form a healthy, sustainable relationship with anyone or be in a healthy, content relationship with someone but not experience the passions of being in love?
eat an anthropomorphic clementine (it can talk and scream) or get stuck in a boring conversation for four hours?
eat shit-flavored chocolate or chocolate-flavored shit?
be a twitter microcelebrity or a tiktok influencer?
be semi-famous while alive or Shakespeare-level famous after death?
wear one color of clothing your whole life or one outfit in different colors your whole life?
live in NY or Italy when you’re old?
be able to turn back time for just one minute, or be able to see what will happen one minute into the future?