| Pomegranate Words |
Elegy: "Swallowing July" by April Bautista, 15, West Bend, Wisconsin Thirteen Made me reevaluate My incomplete Geography And the babyfat Around my stomach That never seemed To sit still Became my obsession, And with it He thrust at me, the tangle of Firsts, That July Bullied me into fathoming. The Firsts Were swathed in subtle shades of innocence And I dipped my fingers Into the film Eager for understanding But feeling eleven still, and Clinging to the Matriarchial skirt That tethered me to Childhood. And July waned— Because we swallowed it whole— Until the days grew Clipped, and the rapiers Of weary patience Were drawn, Freeing eleven but Coming into thirteen, And innocence, A burden to be missed, Shed, Like Summer skin. |