Contamination
What dirties the fool
& his blue-blooded strawberries
(too sweet)
is the marked hesitation
to pluck when ripe.
His yard, his garden
contain sugar’s rot.
Reluctance
is the way “hunger”
heaves “ache” into place
then makes a mockery
of reserve.
These bell-shaped strawberries
& their crimson interiors,
wasted. Thick.
The birds won’t eat them.
Neither will the fool.
Sonja James's poems have been published in The Iowa Review, UCity Review, Crab Creek Review, 32 Poems, The Journal, Kestrel, The South Carolina Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Verse Daily, and Poet Lore, among others. New work will appear in FIELD, Court Green, 5 A.M., and The Dos Passos Review. Among her honors are two Pushcart Prize nominations. In February 2013, Finishing Line Press will publish her new chapbook, Calling Old Ghosts to Supper. She has two sons and resides in Martinsburg, West Virginia.
