A Small Sliver & Late Blooming Fruits

A Small Sliver

A small sliver of wood

in the calloused skin of your palm

might break;

                it might enter

                your bloodstream,

                            it might float

                            into your heart.

It might be okay

(it depends on the size,

                            and on your heart).

Late Blooming Fruits

I was scared to look

inward at the thing

that twined around

my tense belly and

stretched up to my throat —

but when I made myself

stare it down, like a wild

cat holding her territory,

it turned out to be just

blackberries.

                        The long canes

did poke, thorny and deep

purple, at my ribs and lungs,

but they will bear sweet fruit

if I let them. So I softened

my attitude to the plants

in my abdomen, and later

I will eat them.

Allisonn Church spends her free time reading books, rescuing animals, and plucking wild poems from the branches of flowering trees. Some of these poems have been published in The Hopper, Enchanted Living Magazine, and Tiny Seed Literary Journal. Allisonn's chapbook, Sunlight Leaking, is available from Bottlecap Press.