Illicit Affairs
Stop fucking around with me
and suggesting fresh watermelon
in the middle of winter.
Always wanting the fruits
that are out of season.
It was you who ate all
of my Rainier cherries last summer,
you fruit thief.
Their season is short
and they are up to nearly ten dollars
a pound. I saw pits under
your side of the bed when I looked
everywhere for my missing
red hoop earring at Christmas.
Thought the cat
might have dragged it under there.
I’m only saying this because
you will never read it.
I’m only breaking the fourth wall
because of how you
called me by my name
in a bedroom way that
you knew sounded like love,
texted my own name
to me over and over,
keeping me perched on
a windowsill of almost ripe.
The mistress of misdirections:
You must have eaten them
faster than you remember,
I did not touch them,
I’ve never cared for cherries.
*
Kristie Frederick Daugherty is a poet and a professor at the University of Evansville. She holds an MFA in Poetry from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is also a PhD candidate in Literature/Criticism at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She is the editor of “Invisible Strings: 113 Poets Respond to the Songs of Taylor Swift” which was published in December 2024 from Random House. Find her online at www.kristiefrederickdaugherty.com
