I carried two
in the cup of my right hand
like a set of testicles,
soft and heavy for their size,
warm from pavement
relieved of the afternoon sun.
I washed them and ate them,
standing at the sink,
the pulp sweet but not domestic,
overtones of durian or dragonfruit,
flat seeds slipping across my tongue.
Poor child, poor child,
you still don’t know how
to go home empty-handed.
Header photograph © Liz Baronofsky.
Valerie Nieman’s third poetry collection, Leopard Lady: A Life in Verse, was praised as “steeped in sideshow tradition, and addressing issues of race, gender, self-concept, and creative expression.” To the Bones, a mystery/horror novel, was published by West Virginia University Press in 2019. Her writing has appeared widely in journals and anthologies, including Eyes Glowing at the Edge of the Woods and Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology. She has held state and NEA creative writing fellowships. Her novel, Backwater, a YA/crossover thriller set in rural North Carolina, will be published by Fitzroy Books in early 2022. A graduate of West Virginia University and Queens University of Charlotte, she teaches creative writing in North Carolina.