We need to start first with asking ourselves what this conversation of lemons is.

If we are to begin to examine the philosophical roots and entymology of "lemon," per se—and the question, of our time, whether the societal approach and reaction of "lemons" is to procure "lemonade—"this question in itself must be a crucial element of our examination of the issue at large (how it might fit into the lemonadum, as several prominent thinkers have thus been calling it), and it is imperative we understand and acknowledge that this inquisiton is not, as it could seem, a simple and prefunctory element that stands in isolation in the world of men, but is rather a reaction, and, in a sense, the natural precursor to a world that, in essence, is a world of suffering—of the dharma, as Buddhist thinkers propound—that we live in the world that is inherently and firstly a world of pain, a world in which the chief desires in life are promptly spurned, discarded and waylaid by the cruel hand of providence—Ad astra per aspera, and then to the earth of our sins.

If we embellish on this concern, we might be able to approach a full debate.

I don’t want

to grab too many

because

I don’t want my friend

to think I’m that guy

but

this

is

good

shit

and I want more.

thank you

for coming—

to my ted talk.

My watch isn’t right. I left it behind on my suitcase, thrown on the beach, dark and soft in the after-sunset. My phone hasn’t yet had service.

A living thing in me wants me to get up, fix my watch, find service, check who’s been talking to me, find a room. But it is hollow and small, an echo of a far ringing sound; so I leave it. I let myself sink into a dusky jetlag, be caught between something stretched and tired. I wait, try to remember when I was older.

The black water slowly nips at my toes.