✶

From 1934 With Love

After William Carlos Williams

you took the plums
out of the bag in the fridge
never out of an icebox
but when we talked of poetry

you took us back in time
the violet juice dripping
on pearly teeth
caught on my chin and your fingers

almost as sweet as the look
of your tea-light eyes in mine
and the vanilla of the whiskey
cold in our mouths together

✶

Published by UNC Short Edition in 2022