Oh! Olives! I have not eaten you in such quantity
Since I was last in Spain, I think, but
I believe you are in fact from Greece.
I bought you to reward myself for
Doing my very first tax return. I feel
Like a grown up, but
It’s the best of both worlds, because it turns out that I didn’t make enough last year to have to pay tax.
Your delicious, tender flesh belies
Your label, which says that your jar
Contains all of my daily allowance of sodium, but
I’ll go for a run in a bit, and get a sweat going, and to be honest I think I was lacking salt today anyway.
Your cavernous, pitted interiors are filled
With tender slices of pimiento, which is, I believe, a kind
Of pepper, although I am not sure what kind, since
In Spanish, “Piemento” just means “Pepper”.
I have been gradually emptying you as
I write this, and I know that soon
You will be gone, and this poem
All that remains to me to remember you, but
Rest assured that the financial year is only so long, and
If I get my act together and do my next tax return in April instead of leaving it to the last minute, then
It will not be long before
We meet again.