Jim Doran
Rotten Fruit
Oil on canvas
Response
Linger
By Yolanda Palis
Inspiration piece
There’s the trash – old newspapers, shoeboxes,
an avocado pit, me in family pictures
at my mother’s knee. Lingering salmon smell
of expiring. Can’t recall –
did I dream; was I gay, bi or hetero?
Pushed away by a boy, and an irritated voice
I still hear “Let me be!” Now I recall, I chose
to die. Now limited by coffin space, I linger
in the air, the rotting stink of forgotten berries
and bananas, disturbing like the questions
I asked. I linger, the anger between puke
and stifled burp, not having done enough
to stop words that hit, that caused,
perhaps, my indifference to the gash
still gurgling purple blood to earth’s gut.
.
.
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