Comfortable, Jihyea Jang

rotten 

        peaches,

   over ripe

                     plums,

                                splitting along

                    their skins.

  juices the color

           of fevered bruises

 

                            spilling over our hands

             and seeping

into the cracks

               of broken fingernails 

                                                                and the lines

                                          of paper skin. 

                                  lips, bitten

                    plump and

                                 bleeding,

                                                       wine falling

                                 from open mouths

                                                      and running

    down our chins,

                        staining teeth mottled purple,

              staining bated breath

with the haze of ferment

                                                        and ashen regret.

                          air thick with saccharine 

                  sentiment 

                                       and the scent of flesh

                                                                 against flesh.

the primal salt 

      of sweat running over bone,

                                            ragged breath and

            cherry tongues,

                                                           desperate and searching,

                                         limbs grasping,

                     never quite reaching.

      this is not love,

                             but damn if it isn’t close

enough. 

                                      –these sheets and hollows are the truest things i know 

About the Author

Madison Hines · Sam Houston State University

Madison Hines is currently an English major with a minor in Creative Writing at Sam Houston State University. This piece was first published in Beacon.

About the Artist

Jihyea Jang · University of Minnesota

Jihyea Jang is a South Korean contemporary artist based in Minneapolis and a recent graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BA in Art. This piece first appeared in Mochila Review.