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Thomas DeFreitas was born in 1969 in Boston. He graduated from the Boston Latin School, and attended the University of Massachusetts. His poems have appeared in Dappled Things, Ibbetson Street, Muddy River Poetry Review, Plainsongs, and in other publications. Tom is a member of the New England Poetry Club and lives in Arlington.

Thomas DeFreitas.

Mandarin

Take the bright globe of the mandarin
from its red-mesh satchel in the fridge.
Slice the rind with a serrated knife,
three cuts making six acute angles.

Peel the skin to ravish its pulpy flesh.
Bite into a small curved wedge of the fruit,
cold as November, firm and yielding
as any gelatin. Let the juice, vital

with vitamins, burst against your palate:
each drop a festival of Miami revelry!
Take another wedge, and then another.
Offer mute exclamations of gratitude.

— Thomas DeFreitas

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