body fruit
ash goedker
“Somehow, the old mystery of the ancient world was in my body."
– Jim Dine “Venus and ‘the Antique’” after “Two Old Bathers”
To cultivate to the point of bearing
or not my body on display thirsts
all people to trace me engage any edge
imperfect like soft apples like worms
holy and deep in pears the rose hips all
pocked with some russet edges inedible
edible me look here not past my skin
my earth I am more of a locomotive force
going too hard to foliage too young Jesus
said “You will know them by their fruits” if
I bear just bush no fruit I am wrong not but
dried for a new scarlet season kindling
for fires I didn’t beg this on my fruit my navel
my own mother I nourish suckle sustain people
draw my stem a crooked caustic feast outside of
harvest I am still body bloom
Ash Goedker hails from Northern Minnesota. She received her MFA in poetry at the University of Idaho where she was also the Editor-in-Chief at Fugue. She was the winner of the University of Idaho’s Academy of American Poets Prize, and was a finalist in the 2016 Indiana Review ½ K Prize. Her poems have appeared in Great Lakes Review, Indiana Review, Third Point Press and others. She has poems forthcoming in Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review and Press Pause Press. She lives in New Orleans and teaches at Nicholls State University.
