by James Bertolino
(8/11/99)

There was a woman whose orgasms
were vegetable -- when she came,

it was as a plump turnip or stalk
of chard. Once, during her late teens,

she felt her sexual spirit manifest
as blackberry, exquisite feeling split

into a cluster of dark globes, swollen
with sugars. "Oh, yes," she said, "vegetables

of all kinds -- fruit even, though they
were rare. I remember a pineapple.

It was sweet, and so solid, yet there was
an edge -- something in me

that reached for more; something
sharp, serrated. How

could a thing so beautiful
be cruel?"