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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.

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