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YOUR CART

Yasmin Mariam Kloth​

A Secret Life​

for HM
 
​There’s a process to the pomegranate 
most people don't see. First, 
you hold her round body 
in your open palm, press 
fingers against a dimpled rind, 
feel resistance and imagine 
beaded bodies pushing back. 
You must gather your strength here, 
cut this body open with a large, 
flat kitchen blade; and when 
a line has struck through skin, 
a river will run,  
a river will stain what it touches
until the next season peels 
crisp layers from the sky— 
a sign it’s time to visit 
the one dented cardboard bin 
at the grocery with orbs
shining like snow globes.
You hold half in one hand 
seeds facing your palm. 
You hit the rind 
with a heavy spoon 
and let the weight crash 
like a planet and a star.   
This is where the seeds 
will drop through your fingers; 
this is where a bowl of water
will catch every loose nail 
and forgotten thought.  
 
A pomegranate grows on a tree 
in the home of a close family friend, 
grows quietly in her sitting room, nods 
to the friends who come to visit, eavesdrops 
on private conversations unfolding 
in English and Farsi and German. 
When I learned 
how the pomegranate grows, 
I thought— 
this is no longer a pomegranate 
but something else, something 
barely hanging on; 
one hand on a branch, 
the other on its beating heart

Picture
Yasmin Mariam Kloth’s writing explores love, loss, place and space, often at the intersection of her family memories and her Middle Eastern heritage. Yasmin’s work has appeared in various outlets, including JuxtaProse, the Rockvale Review, and others. Her first collection of poetry, Ancestry Unfinished: Poems of a Lost Generation, is forthcoming from Kelsay Books.

Art: Yuno Shiota, 『ころころ、コロコロ』 Korokoro, Korokoro, 286 cm × 205 cm, acrylic and oil pastel on paper, 8.19.2020​
  
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