On this spinning meat locker
it’s nearly scientifically impossible to find a perfectly ripe peach
Touching them makes it worse
Squeezing the sugar around to clot
underneath its skin
Leaving bruises whose shadows grow tall
after the assault
Do you remember the age of fresh fruit?
I don’t, I just remember being young
or the idea of it
I was a peach
then I was something else entirely
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Claire Rychlewski is a writer living in Chicago. Her work has appeared in The Portland Review, blush lit, witch craft magazine and LIGEIA Magazine, among others. She is currently serving as editor of prose for SARKA. Her chapbook, BORN TO ROT, was published in 2022 by Bottlecap Press.