Ache of the Thaw

Photograph by Taylor Bond

By Taylor Bond

Peaches for Eugene

Peaches for Eugene; Soecho-gu

Cut into four sharp sections; pale flesh

dripping —less a wound

than an open heart, fruit crying

not from grief

but from the chance

to be consumed.

Each lonely, lovely slice yearns

to be returned

to a larger body

a being greater than itself.

Sweet summer fruit, this death

is not cruelty;

tragedy is absent in this worship

Bought to be eaten,

purchased for the passion

of tongue to teeth.

A simple gift, quick

to disappear

lest it linger too long

on the kitchen table

and turn to rot;

nothing is worse

than being forgotten.

Pine Tree; Gangbuk-gu

Withered spine

notched flesh

sharpened quills

winter’s sentinels

Mountain climber

etching roots

into stone snags

yanking earth

to bright sky

like hands

of a dying man

seeking last

goodbyes.

The Lotus in Spring

First the flowers float

like a dead girl’s hand

(—poor Ophelia, all adrift)

Dormant petals 

aching, shake the cold

and grow

By autumn the stalks 

will wither and pull 

their water like a magic trick

What remains, 

what is left behind

are the memories of sun,

warmth and wind

humble and pale 

as they may be.

---

Taylor C. Bond is a writer and artist currently living in East Asia. Her work focuses primarily on themes of global folklore, sexuality, and bodily autonomy. She is a graduate of Georgetown University’s English Literature Department, where she was a Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice Fellow and a recipient of the Bernard M Wagner Medal for Fiction.