“Fruit Stand,” by Lily Baumgart
November 20, 2017
Fruit Stand
Carve red into me,
use your whole arms to entangle
my body. I want to feel protected
and warm, blue-warm
like a star nearing expansion.
I’ve been told I’m not humbled
enough. I want you to hold me;
my knees have failed and gone somewhere
else. You allow yourself to let me fall
into your concavities.
It feels like taking a bite
out of a ripe peach, the fuzz
irritates your cheek, the juices
fall from your lips, it
drips
into a puddle and you will feel
how it is to leave you.
I will buy two apples from you
and then say goodbye.
Lily Baumgart is the 2017/18 Seattle Youth Poet Laureate. She performed this poem at the Seattle Arts & Lectures 2017/18 Poetry Series event with A.E. Stallings on November 13th, 2017.