Dissecting Arnold Palmer
By Liz Galvez
lemonade and iced tea
half and half
but not Arnold Palmer to me
sweet, soured summer lemonade
seeds swallowed, stuck in my esophagus and made me a lemon tree
medieval Egyptian origins now commodity fetishized to all-American tradition
of gentile belles sipping on a hot summer’s day
sun baked children smiling in neighborhood cul-de-sacs, baseball fields
sticky hands from making, pouring, serving
this unexpectedly ancient treat
timeless, traditional, taxed and thrown over Boston harbor tea
tell me your history of imperialism
colonization
taxation
bloody revolutions
from any-isms
over your popularity
who put the “oo” in Typhoo? was it chai or oolong?
what does sucrose do to make the consumer feel unsoured?
bitter-free
when only a fraction of cane plantations were incinerated?
by calloused, dark-skinned hands
in righteous, gory mutiny.
yet other fields of sugar still see no justice today.
what does golf have anything to do with this, Arnold Palmer?
where does that name belong among this list?
in the cross-section of a Meyer lemon? or wedged in the “oo” of a gnu?
Original artwork by Liz Galvez, Arnold Palmer + Coffee, watercolor.
Photo courtesy of Liz Galvez.
Liz Galvez (she/ella) is a Las Vegas based poet, currently attending Nevada State College and pursuing her English and writing degrees.