David Spicer (2 poems)
WISDOM OF THE POMEGRANATE
It waits on the shelf with all my books to taste.
My father showed the green fruit when I was young.
When I was young, he said I was green, like the fruit.
I grew older. The pomegranate reddened.
The pomegranate grew older. I reddened.
I tasted its rich color. Its seeds taught me.
Their texture colored the seeds of my thinking.
I ate that pomegranate that stayed the same.
The pomegranate changed me as I ate.
It didn’t shrink or rot. Its seeds flourished.
Over the years I ate its seeds and flourished.
They slowly taught me the world’s ways.
I was slow to learn the ways of the world.
But the pomegranate and books still wait.
THE WAY YOU SAID GOODBYE
I smelled the crow feathers
your fingernails nudged
before you slipped them
behind my headband.
I stood on the hillside,
the fragrance of canyon flowers
drifting to my nose as thunder blasted
above the riverbank. Your eyes
told me to witness a different
beauty: of the storm,
of the Zodiac’s basket of secrets
in your gaze. You smudged
my face with a streak of your
maroon lipstick. Squinting, I stared
at the terrace, smelling lemons.
You said, Spread our white
bedroom linens. They’re my
favorites. It rained and rained
and rained. The sea calls,
but I need my coffee. You smiled,
handed me a tiny quilt decorated
with mustard seeds and cherries.
This is your salvation. If you
never heal from your sins, remember
its colors and these memories,
remember me, as I leave and say
Goodbye for the last time.
David Spicer has published poems in The American Poetry Review, CircleStreet, Gargoyle, Moria, Oyster River Pages, Ploughshares, Remington Review, Santa Clara Review, The Sheepshead Review, Steam Ticket, Synaeresis, Third Wednesday, and elsewhere. Nominated for a Best of the Net three times and a Pushcart twice, he is author of six chapbooks, the latest being Tribe of Two (Seven CirclePress). His latest full-length collections, American Maniac (Hekate Publishing) and Confessional (Cyberwit.net) are now available. He lives in Memphis.