Well Trained

The lemon tree extracts a price
             For every fruit
This is the stalemate our war has reached

Medieval architecture of thorns and spikes!
I (bend, duck, reach and cut—
Improve the soil, increase the water bill)

Emerge, carrying sunshine
In scratched and bleeding arms

1. Blood sacrifice
2. Retreat
3. Both of us heal

Respect for sour things
Grows year by year

back to issue

Emerging writer and fully grown MIT nerd, Jane (Yevgenia!) Muschenetz (Veitzman!) came to the US as a refugee from Ukraine at 10yrs old. She is now mother to two very American kids. Identity and cultural displacement strongly influence her writing. Creator of PalmFrondZoo.com, Jane’s work also appears or is forthcoming in Sheila-Na-Gig, Mom Egg Review, The San Diego Poetry Annual, and The Detour-Ahead Exhibit.