"First time I got the full sight of Shug Avery long black body with it black plum nipples, look like her mouth, I thought I had turned into a man."
— Alice Walker, The Color Purple
When on the verge of ripening into plums, Some girls dream of sunsets & of other girls Some girls dream of bursting beneath darkening sky Some girls dream of her body as book while Tasting the bitter of their own skins When on the verge of ripening into plums Plucked to be eaten or preserved Through gentle pressure & a slight twist, Some girls dream of bursting beneath darkening sky Split to open center & amaranthine flesh, Pruned back to unharmed parts When on the verge of ripening into plums In the middle of concrete cities where fruit Coats pavement & smoke shadows the moon Some girls dream of bursting beneath darkening sky— Water her roots; Cut back her branches & Turn her full-faced to sun When on the verge of ripening into plums— Some girls dream of bursting.
What Sparks Poetry: Daniel Borzutzky on Paula Ilabaca Núñez's The Loose Pearl "The dead dog on the beach at high noon. The hole of flesh. The hole in which all other words have been buried. I lived with these images and tried to let them suffuse the soul and the spirit of this translation, while also allowing the soul and the spirit of The Loose Pearl to suffuse and affect me."
