Strawberry by Mehrnoosh Torbatnejad

I think it would be better
if I were a strawberry
rather than a woman

How easy
it must be
to grow
undisturbed
by concerns
of developing curves

No woes about bruises
and blemishes
maturing across my skin

Pudgy and inflated
I would be celebrated

Appreciated
effortlessly,
selected
unquestionably
no matter what I did

Preserved
and consumed
for my seductive texture,
no matter my color

And even if they discovered
I am not as sweet as they
presumed
I would still have won them over
with my succulent exterior

And my seeds,
none would ever go to waste,
though all embedded in my flesh,
still there on the outside
easy for him to access

Mehrnoosh Torbatnejad was born and raised in New York. Her poetry has appeared in The Commonline Journal, The Coe Review, Kudzu House Quarterly, The Chiron Review, and is forthcoming in Passages North, Stillwater Review, Orange Coast Review, and Riprap Journal. She currently lives in New York and practices matrimonial law.

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