Feeding the Pear - G. C. Waldrep

The next poem I have decided to analyze is "Feeding the Pear" by G. C. Waldrep from Disclamor.  It is certainly an odd narrative, describing the speaker's encounter at a hymn sing, where they were given a pear and told to feed it.  After reading and annotating the poem a number of times, I'm still left quite confused as to what Waldrep is trying to convey through it.  The pear is described as having "a little mouth drawn on the flank / of the pear, but no nose, no eyes, no ears."  I think the fact that the pear only has a mouth, and judging by the title, uses it for consumption rather than speech, is of importance.  Possibly to retain the focus on being fed and consuming, Waldrep depicts the pear as blind, deaf, and having no sense of smell.  The speaker "had no idea what a pear would eat," and subsequently offers it carrot sticks and a packet of sugar.  The pear "remains oblique" after the offering, and sits with a magic marker drawn mouth.  Up to this point in the poem, the speaker has seem detached from the pear.  It was an object that was forced on them and they are unsure of how to treat it.  Once the speaker returns to the singing, they take a more personal affection and care for the poem.  Returning to their seat, "my place on the bench had been taken / by someone else.  Anyway I was preoccupied;" for whatever reason, the speaker has become affectionate and caring for the pear: "I didn't want to bruise the pear.  I wanted to be gentle."  All of a sudden the speaker and pear have developed a parent-child relationship.  All the pear could do was be fed, and the speaker has felt a connection to it. After the connection of parent and child has finally been developed, the poem abruptly ends with someone stopping the speaker and telling them "the pear stays here." It is difficult to follow what exactly Waldrep is telling through his poem.  I had difficulty gaining any one meaning or interpretation of the poem, but I think it addresses matter of relationship and community.  There is a definite relationship that grows between the speaker and the pear, and I think the community of the church is addressed in some way.  The line "the pear stays here" still vexes me.  It is certainly a poem that can be interpreted in many ways.