Satsuma Oranges by Glen Sorestad

Enroute from Houma to New Orleans we spot a roadside stand selling Satsuma oranges, so I pull over, stop the vehicle, get out to stretch my legs and have a look. I say to the woman vendor, I didn’t know you grew Satsumas here. Her eyebrows shoot skyward; her expression says: Did you drop in from outer space? Yes, we sure do. On old sugar cane fields. They’re the sweetest oranges anywhere. Somehow, though I’d never heard this before, it makes an odd kind of sense, doesn‘t it? Wine lovers know terrain has more to do with taste and quality than any other single factor. I climb back into our rental SUV with a bag of fresh-picked Louisiana Satsumas from the land of sugar canes and my tongue is already tuning in to the music of mandarin orange with cane sugar, anticipating.

Glen Sorestad is a much published poet who lives in Saskatoon. His poems have appeared in literary magazines and journals, anthologies and textbooks, all over North America and in many other countries. His poems have been translated into seven languages.
His latest book of poems is Hazards of Eden published by Lamar University Press.