Double Life of a Still Life<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
They breathed
\nonce, planetary in their skins, red
\nripe, indebted<\/p>\n
to the sky, but attracted to earth.
\nYellow lanterns
\nhung by wind, pears over marigolds.<\/p>\n
And peaches,
\ntheir washes of fuzz hazy in the blue
\ndish beneath<\/p>\n
a reincarnated sun and its pitted
\nlover, the moon
\nwho looks, ever looks into the white<\/p>\n
will be. So this
\nis what fruit becomes, longitudinal
\nlight, its juice<\/p>\n
running, the weighty abuse, a glad
\nletting go.
\nGrass’ sweet buffer–romance,<\/p>\n
seeds, skinned
\nknees. All in the time it takes to deal
\na blow, a hand<\/p>\n
of hard luck: pulp slick in the dirt,
\nlast life of a still
\nlife brown in the orchard, and you<\/p>\n
taking what was,
\nwhat is, and smearing its sad cider all
\nover your hands.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cDouble Life of a Still Life\u201d is reprinted from Northwest Review.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Linda Malnack<\/a> has published poems in many journals, including The<\/em> Amherst Review<\/em>, the Seattle Review<\/em>, and Southern Humanities Review<\/em>. She won the Willow Springs<\/em> <\/a>Poetry Award in 2000 and the William Stafford Award (Washington Poets Association) in 1998. Currently, she volunteers as an associate editor for the poetry e-zine, Switched-on Gutenberg<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Double Life of a Still Life They breathed once, planetary in their skins, red ripe, indebted to the sky, but attracted to earth. Yellow lanterns hung by wind, pears over marigolds. And peaches, their washes of fuzz hazy in … Continue reading