Catherine Esposito Prescott
3 poems
**
A Visit to Eden
I now know the apple was not an apple
but a pomegranate, a heart of juicy seeds,
and it was not so much that they ate it,
that they curled their lips around
each seed and kissed the juices
out with young tongues;
their downfall was how much they loved
doing it the first time,
and how the kingdom would never yield
the amount of fruit they would need
to feel that way again.
**
Little Indiscretion in a Plate of Ceviche
She comes. The ceviche shaped in a half moon looks like the head of a 1920s flapper, adorned with a large sprig of mint, which in another era may have been a gardenia. The last course; the final act; the diva of broken hearts, she sings for those whose hearts do not need mending but who live with scars from the rip, the pull of love. After a few bites, the dish swims away from you - cool fish, cumbers and onions reshape into a tangy citrus ocean. You pick snapper directly from the ocean with chopsticks. This ocean is called yuzu. You sing this word yuzu until it becomes you – as if you had been saying it for years like love. You dive under sweet waters and find peace among coral reefs, shipwrecks and schools of anonymous fish. Despite salvagers who would dance on your broken heart, you align past loves with the present tense. You remember the one who could unmoor your life. You know you cannot control your heart’s beating. And then you emerge from the water with a little chili fire burning the tip of your tongue, burning like a heart filled with new desire, burning like a light in the port calling you home.
**
Yet Another Visit to Eden
3.
When Eve first saw the moon
she wept and danced
in a skirt made of palm leaves
and a coconut bustier,
ankles and wrists adorned
with orchid and shell clusters.
She brayed with the animals
and hungered for meat.
Adam ran.
4.
Adam couldn’t get enough
of sex. Sex with Eve, sex with
animals, sex with flowers.
He couldn’t find enough places
to put himself. He sowed his seed
everywhere proclaiming Life! Life! Life!
**
return to sawbuck 1.4
**
Catherine Esposito Prescott is originally from New York. After earning an MFA in Creative Writing from NYU, she moved to Miami, Florida where she now teaches writing and literature at Miami Dade College. Catherine lives on the beach with her husband and their two young sons. Her poems have appeared in 5AM, The Spoon River Poetry Review and Literary Mama.
**
A Visit to Eden
I now know the apple was not an apple
but a pomegranate, a heart of juicy seeds,
and it was not so much that they ate it,
that they curled their lips around
each seed and kissed the juices
out with young tongues;
their downfall was how much they loved
doing it the first time,
and how the kingdom would never yield
the amount of fruit they would need
to feel that way again.
**
Little Indiscretion in a Plate of Ceviche
She comes. The ceviche shaped in a half moon looks like the head of a 1920s flapper, adorned with a large sprig of mint, which in another era may have been a gardenia. The last course; the final act; the diva of broken hearts, she sings for those whose hearts do not need mending but who live with scars from the rip, the pull of love. After a few bites, the dish swims away from you - cool fish, cumbers and onions reshape into a tangy citrus ocean. You pick snapper directly from the ocean with chopsticks. This ocean is called yuzu. You sing this word yuzu until it becomes you – as if you had been saying it for years like love. You dive under sweet waters and find peace among coral reefs, shipwrecks and schools of anonymous fish. Despite salvagers who would dance on your broken heart, you align past loves with the present tense. You remember the one who could unmoor your life. You know you cannot control your heart’s beating. And then you emerge from the water with a little chili fire burning the tip of your tongue, burning like a heart filled with new desire, burning like a light in the port calling you home.
**
Yet Another Visit to Eden
3.
When Eve first saw the moon
she wept and danced
in a skirt made of palm leaves
and a coconut bustier,
ankles and wrists adorned
with orchid and shell clusters.
She brayed with the animals
and hungered for meat.
Adam ran.
4.
Adam couldn’t get enough
of sex. Sex with Eve, sex with
animals, sex with flowers.
He couldn’t find enough places
to put himself. He sowed his seed
everywhere proclaiming Life! Life! Life!
**
return to sawbuck 1.4
**
Catherine Esposito Prescott is originally from New York. After earning an MFA in Creative Writing from NYU, she moved to Miami, Florida where she now teaches writing and literature at Miami Dade College. Catherine lives on the beach with her husband and their two young sons. Her poems have appeared in 5AM, The Spoon River Poetry Review and Literary Mama.
