Amy Dugmore
Whenever I remember Paul said this
I think how it’s a bold statement for a man
considering what Eve already achieved
with a single Granny Smith, a whole bunch
of stuff the world still hasn’t forgiven her for
like oversized sanitary pads, every single
Instagram influencer ever and children’s
choirs. Every single Instagram influencer says
it’s good to have goals so it was probably
a good thing that Paul was aiming for astonishment
in Paris. After all they’d only just got the tower
and they didn’t have the Métro yet so a few more apples
artistically rendered were probably welcome.
A long time after this I walked down the Boulevard
de Grenelle with you in snow, real deep white snow.
We had the street to ourselves and it was so quiet
we barely spoke. This was before you left me
and before all the other people were up, while
they were still drinking their post-coital coffees
over neat breakfast tables. After the snow
we ordered a fruit platter back at the hotel.
We sat on the bed and tucked into all
the grapes and pineapples and persimmons
and it’s true, technically, you told me,
almonds and acorns are also fruit
but the popular definition allows only
ripened ovaries that are sweet and succulent
or pulpy. Which rules out nuts but means
that when Paul made his pronouncement
about apples he was also announcing his intent
to astonish the second largest metropolis
of the Nineteenth Century
with his ovaries. Twice now I’ve been told
I have first-rate ovaries. The first time,
in the hospital, the sonographer told me
about the ovaries after telling me about
the fibrous knots of muscle taking up space
in my womb. This was after you left me
and after telling me about the rain and her stint
in Rheumatology. Possibly my ovaries
are succulent, it’s hard to tell
and I didn’t think to ask. I did think
about drawing a smiley face on the scan
but they don’t give you a picture when it’s only fibroids.
According to Google, Paul drew almost
three hundred apples during his lifetime
which is pretty astonishing.
Amy Dugmore is a poet and copywriter from Birmingham, UK. Her poems have appeared in The North, Poetry Wales, Propel Magazine and Atrium, among others.
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