Avocado
It’s the most confidential fruit,
though it may not be a fruit at all.
This is the source of its delicious androgyny.
It will part with itself in ways we can’t.
The exterior self and interior self are compatible.
It behaves privately and makes a rich oil.
When the time comes it loosens,
a ripe piece of soap, clean and medicinal.
Its final word is the perfect stone.
(first published in The North (Issue 48: December 2011)
No, Mon Amour
My breast
(the right one)
shrinks inside its pouch.
It is pale,
toadhearted.
The lesser breast
suffers the most.
Poor relative
of the breast with the franchise,
specially commissioned theme tune
and gift shop.
How often people presume
that the agony of the breasts
is double!
No, mon amour.
While the left
is crushed and petted,
the orphan right
silently hungers.
The animal slopes
back to its room.
If only the scenario
weren’t so
laughable.
If only the left
didn’t swell
with each hard twist
of the nipple.
(first published in The Stinging Fly (October 2013)
Amy McCauley’s poetry has been widely published and in 2008 she was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize. Her current project involves reworking Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus as a collection of interlocking poems. She is studying for a PhD at Aberystwyth University, where she also teaches.
andotherpoems.com 