"I hope that we will all live happily ever after & maintain our respective & due proportions while sucking gleefully our respective oranges." – Leo to Gertrude Stein, 1912

Just so we’re on the same page
when I offered to come by
and supply you with as many oranges
as you might like,
it was not necessarily
specifically oranges of which I was speaking.
Had you desired,
I’d have been happy to provide
whatever citrus that would satisfy you.
I’m not picky.
Say you’re a mandarin girl
– or you’re all into clementines.
Whatever you had wanted,
I would have done the due diligence
to bring it to your door.

You want a kumquat?
You get the idea…

And,
to be clearer,
or further clear,
or, to make myself more clear,
or, to further clarify my initial point, if I may,
while the offer to bring you something was certainly genuine
the more genuine part of my request
the central part, I should say,
was the desire to come by
to see you
to avail myself of your company
because I’d like to see you more
and if getting more vitamin C into your system
is the best way to effect that change,
then so be it.
But if ginger snaps are preferred,
just say the word.

Maybe that was obvious
from the start,
but better it be said,
I always say,
or sometimes consider saying,
at least.

Look, if I can clarify –