A is For | Lindsey Hargrave

a flesh so sweet
it couldn’t be Eve’s.
Here, we decided it stood for other
first - letters, colors, nutrition - begged
to be more than A is for,
more than Marlboro,
more than jazz and galas.
Here, we made it into meat,
cooked it in milk and hamburgers and called it a pie,
called it a national anthem, called it Shea Stadium.
We tell legends of a wandering father John
who uprooted sequoias to make the land taste like cinnamon,
who we turned into Babe-Ruth-Clark-Gable-Santa-Claus
who manifested some genetically engorged destiny:"
miles and miles of produce aisles toppling
waxy red, gold and green, nothing left to eat
but fables rotting on the ground.


Lindsay Hargrave is a writer with recent and upcoming publications in Maudlin House, Ellipsis, FEED, giallo and Button Eye Review. She reads poems with the improvised music group Oarsman and the indie pop band Mỹ Tâm (@sunflowerintheeast) and serves as editorial assistant for Rejection Letters. Follow her on Twitter @notporkroll.