This is my response to this week’s Flashback Track Friday prompt, where we were challenged to:

Write something which uses fruits or vegetables as a metaphor.

When my brother was in on a racket,
Crossed a mobster he swindled a packet,
But went red as a beetroot,
When he saw his concrete boots,
And found fifty lead weights in his jacket.

This one was harder than I first thought. I actually set the prompt, but I never start thinking about a response until the prompt is live. I saw one or two fruit responses yesterday, so I tried desperately to think of a vegetable.

And I presume beetroot is a vegetable, isn’t it? In any case, it is one of my bete noir foods, guaranteed to make me wretch on sight. I’ve hated it since I was a child, when my parents used to buy that pickled beetroot which oozes bright purple. Ugggh. Double uggggh. It’s right up there with celery, I’m afraid.

For the rhyme, I had the delightful idea of someone from Yemen, taking a bite from an unripe lemon, going red as a beetroot, who should have chosen a sweet fruit… But alas I couldn’t think of a last line. I’ll have to keep that one on the backburner. It’s bound to come to me as soon as I hit “publish”.

And my very first thought, I must admit, was the immortal Prince.