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Poetry

Alexis Bates

Unsolicited Advice (About That Boy)
 
 

My roommate stops me from tossing

the bananas, already browning,

the rot makes them better

for the stomach to digest…
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Alexis Bates

 

 

Unsolicited Advice (About That Boy)

 

My roommate stops me from tossing
the bananas, already browning,
the rot makes them better
for the stomach to digest

I left them
shrunken and colored with time
in the fruit bowl to contaminate
my pears with their taste

I left them until a heavy breath
at the dining room table
would break the fruit from the stem
I left them longer than that

I left them until I could be drunk with fermentation
because I needed
to take the edge off
I left them longer than that

the bananas, already blackened,
were eaten
and I doubted their ability
to nourish me

By Alexis Bates

Alexis Bates is a poet and writer who uses words to initiate intimacy with an audience. You can read her work in Luna Luna Magazine, Five:2:One, Vagabond City Lit, and elsewhere. Her micro-chap, When Cars Touch, is published with Ghost City Press.