1
It’s hard to believe in May,
sky the gunmetal gray
that murders more than sleep.
Clouds won’t leave the sun alone.
Nor will wind, insisting on long johns,
scarves, gloves, coats and woolen mail;
has us longing for Sir Lancelot.
It’s hard to believe in May.
Wind sniffles and everybody trembles.
2
Apple was apple, not forbidden fruit
jacking us into knowledge of what
we couldn’t imagine. Which was precious.
She’s gone, but if she weren’t she’d say
that even on the outskirts of the garden
venom was sweet. We hadn’t any regret.
When the road forked we forked, too,
but before we did we bit deep.
Forbidden or not, apple was wholly apple.
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 17, Issue 2.
George Drew is the author of The View from Jackass Hill, the 2010 winner of the X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize, Texas Review Press, 2011. His sixth collection, Fancy’s Orphan, is due out in September, 2015, Tiger Bark Press, and his chapbook, Down & Dirty, will appear in June, 2015, Texas Review Press. He is the winner of the 2014 St. Petersburg Review poetry contest. Originally from Mississippi, he lives in upstate New York.
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