Decomposition

This is very interesting... It make me wonder what would inspire it.

When reading this I found that the line breaks seemed odd to me. But then again I've read published poetry that had line breaks that seemed odd to me, so I have a feeling this is probably me not you.

I, as a read who does not know if this is depicting anything more then a rotten fruit(that is not actually how I feel, but how most people will), is rather unsure about the second stanza. I get the feeling that this poem is probably depicting something more(this is how me as a individual feels), in which case the whole stanza about the knife makes sense. But I do know some people who see poetry for exactly what it says, meaning that this poem is about a rotten fruit. Thinking about it that way the stanza about the knife makes no sense. Why would someone cut up a rotten fruit?
This could be left as it is and it would be fine, but I think it would be improved if you thought about what you are trying to portray a little, and see if you can find something else that would make more sense to the people who see this poem as exactly what it says.

And here in the fourth stanza, you've all of a sudden gone from referring to yourself as a fruit to a tree(or bush), I think. This would be fine, but for that fact that I have to say "I think". Your wording makes the reader a little unsure about what you are now portraying yourself. Are you a tree? A bush? Have you changed at all?
Although this might actually work if you do it intentionally. But that depends on what you want this to portray. Using confusion about this should probably be used to depict a feeling of confusion, and I think this poem is depicting a feeling of rotting away, slowly losing all value.
And if you tried to use something like this intentionally you'd have to be very careful, or it'd just be confusing.

But now I see that you have fixed the confusion of the fourth stanza! Well played! Once the reader sees the last stanza it resolves their confusion. Very good job on that.
I particularly liked the ending. It leaves me wondering if you appear to be rotting but are not, or if you appear to be fine but are actually not. I'm not sure if that is a good or bad thing, but personally I like it when poetry leaves something for me to wonder about afterward. But there are probably other people who don't like that and would rather you resolve this last question. That meaning that it is completely up to you, which crowd will you please?

Well done. I hope you do well on this possible scholarship thing.

~WW

Hello again! I saw this recommended for me when I logged on, and I was like, "Indieeloise wrote something! Yay!!" So yeah, here I am.

Congratulations on getting accepted into this magazine you say! You fully deserve a chance like this. So you say you need to edit it down. How much? Does it need to be shorter than it is, because I think it's a perfect length now as it is. However, I will try to find the best spots that can be cut down, if you so need them...

Alright. Now for the 'in-depth review'.

Specific:

"I am rotten fruit,
de-composing"

I don't really understand why you used a hyphen in 'de-composing' here. Especially since the title does not include the hyphen, it's not really necessary, so maybe just use 'decomposing'.

"from the inside
out."

Perfect line break, make sure to leave it just like that.

"Take your kitchen knife;"

Here's one word you can cut out if you want to: since this poem is metaphorical anyways, the word 'kitchen' does not truly add much to the poem, at least in my opinion. I think it would be just as good to say 'Take your knife;'.

"mince, chop, slice me
to slivers. Sever this exocarp"

I love that line: "mince, chop, slice me to slivers.". As far as 'exocarp', I like it and it sounds fine, but for the purpose of this poem, if you want to make that line a little shorter, just 'skin' would also be fine. Or (although this does nothing to shorten it) you could use 'skin' and put another adjective to help the description, such as 'cracked', 'dry', 'brittle', or 'moldy'. Just some options, not necessarily any better than the original but worth a try if you want to experiment a little.

"from the bruised flesh
within me."

Perfect phrasing, I wouldn't change the wording. But if you want another place to cut down, it probably would be okay to move the 'within me' back up do that those two lines are just one instead...

"I am dry rot; slowly
spoiling from the termites
that invade my core."

Not much to say about this one...it's not one of my favorite parts but it's perfectly fine anyways.

"Take your welded ax;"

Just like with the 'kitchen' knife, I don't see the importance of 'welded' in this line. It would sound just as good, better actually, to say 'Take your ax;". I don't know. Maybe it's because the short phrase sounds a little more hostile and curt, to go with the mood...or maybe that's just me.

"cleave, carve, whittle me
to splinters. Amputate me
from the roots that no longer
yield supplement."

First two lines: good as before. Personally I think with all these synonyms for "cut", the actual word "cut" could have been tucked in somewhere, but maybe it would sound better in the second stanza? I don't know. As far as the third and fourth lines, I really like them. This was, however, one of the few places it would be remotely possible to cut down, though. Perhaps you could make those two lines into one, using different wording? Maybe something like, "from the cold, withered roots" or a similar sentence? Okay, that didn't sound very good, but you get the point. I'm sure you could find something poetic to condense those two lines into.

"Bruised citrus, moldy
driftwood - I am not
as I appear."

As far as this stanza, I think it might be good if it started with "I am". That's just my thoughts, you might not like it that way, it's just my brain somehow expected it because the other two shorter stanzas (1st and 3rd) start with "I am"...but you certainly don't need to do that if it's not what you want. The other thing about this stanza is that I didn't fully understand it in relation with the others. It's a little ambiguous, but I can't figure out why. Maybe that's just me being unobservant though. Anyways, perhaps it could be cleared up a little bit. Or not. Whatever you like.

General:

I really loved this poem! Once again, congrats on it getting accepted; I hope you get the scholarship! I admit although its general theme is obvious, I probably didn't understand every detail. But then again I'm not always that great at determining meanings, I just know beauty when I see it. And this was beautiful. Wording is really great, although just a couple of words that I mentioned above could be shortened to go more along with the mood of the poem, but otherwise awesome choices! I only gave some suggestions for shortening, I wasn't sure how much you needed, etc. but maybe some of them will help you to edit!

Hope you found this helpful!

Sapi