Bitter Fruit

[featured story]

Sharp-toothed, blunt-tongued something

Jumps down my throat,

Worms its way into my stomach

And ties it into knots.

It bites, snaps at my core, unbridled and unleashed,

Whispers sourness in my ears, curdled, rotten,

Begs me to snap an apple from some forbidden branch,

Curls into my gut, blackened and shrunken as the figs

Shriveled in my backyard, the ones I never dared to taste.