Malak Mattar, Untitled (detail), 2024, charcoal on paper
The Pear
It is the new dream, how the light
folds around her feet, the fruit gathered
from the garden, the other hard stones.
She presses the knife against her thumb,
the strips like thin paper, pale green,
spiraling softly around the flesh, the white,
exact shape. For a moment this skin
could be any set of stairs, and sweet scent
or blade, nothing now can stop it.
Published:
| Online 2004

Liz Beasley
Related Articles
“I live out my life in the widening coils”
Poetry by Rainer Maria Rilke • Translated from the German by David Keplinger
Hydrogen Peroxide Sonnet
Poetry by Sharon Olds
I Don’t Know . . .
Poetry by Humberto Ak'abal • Translated from the Spanish by Michael Bazzett