izzy

you put me aside to thaw, thick and raw
resting in a temperature-controlled environment
with all the grace of a frozen chicken breast
or maybe a thigh

I don’t know what it means to say
‘you held me like a lover’

is that delicate and raw and rare
or more like taking a mallet to me?

*

sarah

The plums had just ripened when the wrecking balls came
and I tore into them, juice slipping out of the sides of my teeth
skin staining the top of my tongue before the grit snuck around it
turned the sweet fruit gravelly and bitter
and brown from where the chimney had been

*