Peniaphobia with the God Pluto
by Andreea Ceplinschi
Do the rich feel pain when you eat them?
I hold my breath and crawl:
Titan Arum blooming fear of mediocrity
Against desires to sink my teeth into soft, sagging flesh,
Piercing through brown-spotted skin,
Paper-thin,
To let their juices run warm down my chin.
Do they taste of mahogany and rotten peaches?
I bet their blood runs with ambergris and vanilla –
the good kind you scrape right out of the bean –
Baring my teeth against the stygian night
After one bite
To spit it out: too rich for my blood!
Do they bleed highly educated cerulean? Tell me
What was that dollar to you
Before it turned two?
Was it sweat?
How cheap did it come? Tell me
How much does a pretty penny weigh
On you?
Are your teeth as rotten as mine? Tell me
What’s the sound, soft and luscious
When they hit bone?
Are they sharp against the body
Of your crown?
Is that heavy? Tell me!
Lay it down.
About the Author
Andreea Ceplinschi is a Romanian immigrant living in MA. She began writing in 2019, using poetry as a means to cope with the loss of her mother, immigration struggles and the world in general. Her published work includes Terminal in La Piccioletta Barca, and Immigrant Gold, on the American University in Bulgaria website, winner of her alma mater's first Filitsa Sofianou-Mullen Creative Writing Competition, poetry section.