Yellow Metamorphosis

The yellow glow containing what’s inside,

a hidden sun wrapped around its own skin.

This brave banana stands before me,

curvy and shiny like a crescent moon,

waiting, waiting, just waiting to reveal his true colors to the world.

He cries to be let free,

though no tears form, because through what eyes would they?

to be peeled away from this prison

to see the world for the very first time

is simply the wish of a simple banana.

The branches were your ceiling, the leaves were your sky

The peel is your armor, the last reminder of home.

You want to forget your roots—and those of the tree

Whilst freedom waits quietly below the stem.

Just pick and peel without getting an ick from the stick

Snap! O, but with an unwrapping and surrendering of the skin

A new color emerges from the light

Your walls collapse, your stem falls, but somehow you become more you.

Smooth without bruise, soft without weakness

The outside and inside contrast like a sibling rivalry

The outside, bright yellow with imperfections 

The inside, creamy and pastel, molded perfectly by the outside’s protection 

And still, neither could exist without the other

Perhaps the banana was never meant to choose between them

The peel and the flesh are truly one

The outside shapes; the inside forms

For beneath every surface is a deeper truth worth protecting.

Nicholas Bobolia ‘30

I wrote this poem to explore appearance and identity through the symbolism of a banana. I used poetic devices such as personification, imagery, and sound devices to emphasize the struggle of the banana between the desire for freedom and his feeling of connection to his roots. The contrast between the peel and the flesh throughout the poem represents how two different parts can actually be part of the same whole once you look closer. Ultimately, the poem represents how there can be a deeper truth beneath every surface, and that what protects us can become part of who we are.