All day long the poem writes itself

by Sarah McArthur

I START OUT plump
a pear
thick skinned and hardly ripe

but then with each hour
the skin
is worn in
and my love is worn down

I rattle with bones
I open my mouth
and it rings like an unkept bell

First too soft
and then
too loud

SARAH currently lives and works in Edmonds, Washington. She would describe herself as painfully shy by nature but has learned to overcome it by simply pretending not to be. She says it mostly works unless it doesn’t. When she’s not hanging out with her sisters, she enjoys running, eating, reading, taking pictures and staying up too late.