fruit

By Chloe Chou

warm palms against the soft flesh of nectarines
sweet honey drips on infant breath and
ink spills across the page, a flash in eyes (passport to somewhere else)
a paper bag filled with fruit on the counter
how much does it weigh?
(call it living, call it enough)
tear the nectarine open like
a body creased and folded and torn along the line
that’s how you begin to save yourself (fruit washed, body washed ashore like something once
loved)
something brand new? that’s how you win a war
paper bag filled with fruit on a boat across the atlantic
& phantom home (stretch marks under baggy clothes)
bite into fruit & it is nothing but sweet

Born and raised in Daly City, Chloe Chou is a sophomore at Westmoor High School. Along with serving as the Daly City Youth Poet Laureate, she is also the South San Francisco Youth Poet-In-Residence. Her writing has been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, and is published or forthcoming in Elementia, The Eunoia Review, Sine Theta, and Alocasia. As her service project for the Daly City Youth Poet Laureate Program, she’s also started Cloudy, a youth-led literary magazine featuring the writing and art from Daly City youth and the rest of the world. In her free time, you may find her making mixtapes or editing for Polyphony Lit!

Why we chose this piece: First, nectarines are an exceptional yet underrated fruit, so at a surface level, we were into it. But Chloe’s imagery and turns of phrase bring in a really nice layer of depth. Also, this poem just feels nice to read aloud.