The Last Olive
I offer you the last olive.
Have it yourself, you say.
Don’t be ridiculous, I reply –
just take it. I saved it for you.
You bite into the olive,
your teeth working their way
around the hard interior.
You eat half of it
and hand the other half over.
The rest is yours, you say.
I savour the flesh –
this gift I’ve been given.
Joshua Seigal is best known as a children’s author and poet, and has several full collections published with Bloomsbury. His work for a ‘grown up’ audience has been Highly Commended in the 2026 Poetry Wales Award, and he recently released his debut pamphlet, wryly entitled The Relationship Expert, as a free digital publication, which can be downloaded here: https://archive.org/details/