From WTP Vol. VII #1

From the Outside it Was Beautiful
2018 WTP Honorable Mention

It wasn’t an apple the princess bit
before she fell into sleep. It was a peach.
Yellow-fleshed, sun-warmed, sweet juice that ran

down her chin as her teeth punctured skin.
Submission, lips tickled by tiny hairs –
oh, she knew what she was doing, taking such pleasure

when the men were off at work.
There wasn’t enough for everyone, so she
glutted herself alone. Seduced

by the scent of summer, the irresistible
dew of fleeting youth. So greedy to bite and chew.
She had no eyes for pale flesh or crisp reds, nothing

could tempt like that golden infusion.
Peach-poisoned her senseless. Immobile, isn’t she
lovelier? How could they put that body,

that face, into black earth? The crystalline shine
amplifies. Here she lies. Showcased.
Of course he found her, the one who loves

women only quiet. Still as dolls. He got more
than he bargained for when that poison
was knocked from her throat. When she awoke.

Hope Jordan received the 2018 Academy of American Poets prize at UMass Boston, where she’s an MFA candidate. Her poems appeared recently in Comstock Review, Naugatuck River Review, Nine Mile, and Red Headed Stepchild. Her 2018 chapbook, The Day She Decided to Feed Crows, was published by Cervena Barva Press.