Megan Gannon – Ⅰ
First Excuse
Every plant poised
at the point of its own
opening– petals
folded like mouse-ears
downy and thinly fleshed,
fruit hard with un-loosened juice,
every animals’ eyes shallow
with un-narrowed light–
I remember the world
was new but also
unyielding. I started
performing minor
surgeries, testing
how my teeth broke skin,
how my finger slid inside
the hasp of a pea’s green seam,
unclasping one by one
its tender contents.
Is it any wonder I wanted something
to bear more than the name
I gave it, why I entered her
body new as unbruised fruit
that never gathered enough
weight to fall?
Every plant poised
at the point of its own
opening– petals
folded like mouse-ears
downy and thinly fleshed,
fruit hard with un-loosened juice,
every animals’ eyes shallow
with un-narrowed light–
I remember the world
was new but also
unyielding. I started
performing minor
surgeries, testing
how my teeth broke skin,
how my finger slid inside
the hasp of a pea’s green seam,
unclasping one by one
its tender contents.
Is it any wonder I wanted something
to bear more than the name
I gave it, why I entered her
body new as unbruised fruit
that never gathered enough
weight to fall?
