Saturday, August 09, 2014

OLIVE PITS IN GAZA

by Heather M. Browne



A Palestinian woman hugs an olive tree uprooted by armed Israelis (Photo: Frank M. Rafik via Haiti Chery).


They looked like olives
Falling
From the sky
Tiny gifts from Heaven
With that glisteny sheen
The ripeness
Ready to burst
In our open mouths
Ready to receive
Flavoring
Saturation

We’d suck on them
Gnawing off each bit of meat
Between our hungry teeth
Leaving nothing but pit and bone
Grateful for this communion

They looked like olives
Armied green falling from the sky
Our mouths open
Waiting for their burst


Heather M. Browne is a faith-based psychotherapist and recently emerged poet, published in the Orange Room, Boston Literary Review, Page & Spine, Eunoia Review, Poetry Quarterly, The Poetry Bus, Red Fez, The Muse, An International Journal of Poetry, Deep Water Literary Journal, Electric Windmill, Maelstrom, mad swirl, and Dual Coast.  Her first chapbook We Look for Magic and Feed the Hungry has been published by MCI. She just won the Nantucket Poetry Competition. She has been married 20 years to her love, has 2 amazing teens, and can be found frolicking in the waves.