Ode to the First Peach

Only one insect has feasted here—

a clear stub of resin

plugs the scar. And the hollow

where the stem was severed

shines with juice.

The fur still silvered

like a caul. Even

in the next minute,

the hairs will darken,

turn more golden in my palm.

Heavier, this flesh,

than you would imagine,

like the sudden

weight of a newborn.

Oh what a marriage

of citron and blush!

It could be a planet

reflected through a hall

of mirrors. Or

what a swan becomes

when a fairy shoots it

from the sky at dawn.

At the beginning of the world,

when the first dense pith

was ravished and the stars

were not yet lustrous

coins fallen from the

pockets of night,

who could have dreamed

this would be curried

from the chaos?

Scent of morning and sugar,

bruise and hunger.

Silent, swollen, clefted life,

remnant always remaking itself

out of that first flaming ripeness.

ELLEN BASS

Chancellor Emerita of the Academy of American Poets, is the author of Indigo (Copper Canyon, 2020) and several acclaimed poetry collections, including Like a Beggar and Mules of Love, which won the Lambda Literary Award. She co-edited No More Masks! (1973), the first major anthology of women’s poetry. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and numerous literary journals. A recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and NEA, she has won multiple awards, including four Pushcart Prizes. Bass also authored influential nonfiction books on trauma and healing, including The Courage to Heal, and leads poetry workshops in prisons. She teaches in Pacific University’s low-residency MFA program.