Ceviche

by Paris Rosemont 

Your little yuzu sapling should have tipped me off to your love
of zest.  You tended to it  with the  care and patience  of a zen
master cultivating inner peace. I have begun craving the tart tang
 
of tangerine tickling my tastebuds, imagining you on my tongue as 
I dip into the pink flesh of a grapefruit wedge—sweet, bitter and
sourish—bright as a sharp slap prickling pungent as smelling salts.
 
My lips pucker as I suck the rind bare as my cunt—a slow kiss laced
with a lick of vinegar. Love flays me—I tingle. My senses awaken to
you;  the blood  orange  dribbling acidic  into each tiger stripe of my
 
wounds. I become an ouroboros, consuming my own marrow,
marinating in your secretions.  I am raw—my translucent flesh
transformed by the lime of your love. 

Paris Rosemont is the author of Banana Girl (WestWords, 2023), shortlisted for the Association for the Study of Australian Literature’s 2024 Mary Gilmore Award for a first volume of poetry. Her second collection, Barefoot Poetess, is due for release in early 2025. Paris may be found at www.parisrosemont.com.