Trigger warning: mention of disordered eating. 

And the plum

Sometimes you don’t eat
And it’s not because of illness or 
Lack of inclination 
Or because the world tells you 
To be smaller
And this is the only thing 
You can control 
To comply
But it’s because instead 
Of eating, you wonder
About kissing plum juice 
Off the lips of someone beautiful 
And you’d rather feel the pull
Of an empty gut
Than that heavy chest 
Ache and shallow breath
Found in wanting a fiction
Of something you’ve never had
And that bite is a reminder 
To sit with yourself
To settle and be still
Because you can still 
Suck the flesh 
From a plum pit
Without it being bit 
By someone else

About the author

Jem Hewett is a nonbinary bookseller, zine-maker, illustrator and obsessive cat parent based in New Zealand.

Photo by Alexandra Kikot on Unsplash.