Late August Peaches
Cherise Pollard

Flesh that gives to the thumb,
thin skin that slides with
the least bit of pressure.

A slick ball of late summer sun
in my palm. I slice
the brown spots, juice runs

through my fingers, drips off my wrist,
the center stone crumbles
intoxicating decay.

I know fruit is best when it
is almost rotten: grown and funky,
the temptress saunters.

Cherise A. Pollard, Ph.D., is Professor of English at West Chester University. A Cave Canem and Callaloo Fellow, Pollard was awarded a grant from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund. Her poem, “Sugar Babe” was a Finalist for the 2015 Rattle Poetry Prize. Her chapbook, Outsiders, was chosen by C.M. Burroughs as the winner of the 2015 Susan K. Collins/Mississippi Valley Chapbook Contest sponsored by the Midwest Writing Center. Along with Wendy Scott Paff and Daniela Buccilli, Pollard is co-editor of the Show Us Your Papers poetry anthology (Main Street Rag Press, 2020). She is currently co-editing an anthology of poems about Motown.