Through the Membrane
words lisa st. john
The clementine is ripe.
This doesn’t mean the fruit is ready.
My thumbnail tears open
the sweet-smelling orange coat.
I search;
expose vesicles.
Rough rind reveals a more
delicate hue, the pulp
of promise.
After the thick skin,
tiny white fibrous bones
need peeling away.
Forever
looks forbidding
without you.
Will this taste bitter
or sweet?
I trust in the symmetry of it all.
I bite through the membrane,
disrupt the delicate meat, the petite
balloons of juice.
Lisa St. John
A writer living in upstate New York, Lisa St. John is the author of two poetry books, Ponderings (Finishing Line Press) and Swallowing Stones (Kelsay Books). She is a Best of the Net nominee for her poem ‘War is a Human Child’ from The Poetry Distillery. Lisa is published in journals such as
2 Elizabeths, The New Verse News, The Poet’s Billow, The Ekphrastic Review, The Orchards Poetry Journal, Light, and Entropy Magazine. Lisa believes that art is hope and that there is beauty in possibility. She is currently working on a memoir. Find out more at lisachristinastjohn.com.
- ‘Poetry Competition Winner: Through the Membrane by Lisa St. John’ is published in Anthology Volume 23. Read more features from this volume or buy it now.
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