eating a peach, after

Matthew Stepanic

there is a before & an after.
a knife splits a peach & is caught

by the pit. it has forgotten how to
germinate, passed under the doorframe

& the glass of water it needed slipped from
the mind. bruises blush the flesh & my tongue

tries to recall sweet & juicy & warm. it tastes
only texture, mashes pulp for paper for

a poem. this poem bookmarks the tree
this body will bury in the orchard.

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Matthew Stepanic is the editor of Glass Buffalo & he tweets about his corgi @mstepanic. Find more of his work—like his novella in Project Compass about hookup culture, or his poetry chapbook about RuPaul's Drag Race, Relying on that Body—on his website: www.matthewstepanic.com.