When the Root of Apple (תפוח) Sweetly Exhales
separate the skin / from the apple /
manzana / sounds like mechitza /
mitzvah / it is a good deed /
to separate / his meat / from her milk
Ars Poetica #____
I was already thinking
about the future
of holding
the damn parts in place
(my arm, my breath,
your face):
the arm as practice
for blood drawn
because hospitals
scare me,
and I’m still clutching
my stomach,
breathe, you tell me
so I kiss you instead
(that’s a practice
in halation of sorts)
before I catch
my throat thumping
as I merge
on the freeway
I’ve almost
fallen off
of you inches
away from bed
or your arm
has fallen asleep
from my back’s
pressure on it
before it happens
it had already occurred
in my imagination
aren’t I always
anticipating
“earnestly
desirous”
and isn’t that
what I’ve been
trying to do this
whole time
through the full
unfolding
of this poem
persuading you
to lean
into the ladder
of me
escalate
scale
the most
heightened
catastrophes
and get you so
worked up
you’ll end up
________
Clayre Benzadón is an MFA graduate student at the University of Miami, managing editor of Sinking City, and Broadsided Press’s Instagram editor. Her chapbook, “Liminal Zenith” was published by SurVision Books. She was also awarded the 2019 Alfred Boas Poetry Prize for “Linguistic Rewilding” and has been published in places including SWWIM, 14poems, Crêpe and Penn, and Fairy Tale Review’s Gold Issue. You can find more about her at clayrebenzadon.com.
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