Peeling Back The Layers Copyright © Sally Gardner 2011

I don’t know the names of different varieties of onion but I think you would.
Sometimes I prepare one on the kitchen sink and the brown outside skin
is so tough and tight it takes a sharp knife to pierce and peel it.
Underneath, the layers are chunky as a woollen jersey
knitted with curlicues and cables and
rather than slice right through I want to peel them,
together with each dividing membrane.
The layers make me cry as they’re removed, but once the heart of it
is in my palm, that vulnerable white onion heart resting in my palm, with one
fine green life-line extending from the top – the tears stop.