stone_fruit raze my throat a gutted peach, the endocarp made ancient by the loss of its poison — a cyanide capsule that would turn teeth to powder before sweet yellow uvula could close around its discharge, a clenched muscle doubling as conveyor (though what's being conveyed is anyone's guess) — and all this skin, with no clogged pores to serve as coordinates on the map of my undoing. 211008 ... kerry planting bulbs in the sad excuse for a garden, i keep finding peach pits and shards of glass. i've always thought of them as poisonous, an ugly secret inside something beautiful and bright. the fig tree has grown three feet in three months and i hack away at the salvia in preparation for fall but it rebels. i feel like the garden is trying to tell me something. keep your hands to yourself, maybe. 211008 ... tender square reading this poem is reminding me of an experience my mother had years ago. she said it felt as though there was a stone in her throat she could not get rid of. it had been bothering her for weeks. she became aware of its presence when my family was faced with yet another crisis related to my older sisters and their alcoholism. mom could not rid herself of the stone; it persisted no matter what she tried. it kept her up at night. she eventually realized that the blockage stemmed from her not being honest about how she felt; for too long she had been biting her tongue about my sisters’ issues, instead of confronting them about their patterns of behavior. we were a family that routinely swept unpleasant things under the rug. when my mother became more forthcoming about where she stood in relation to these family conflicts, the stone gradually turned to dust. what’s really fascinating to me is the line you have about a “conveyer belt” and what is being “conveyed,” which makes me wonder if this could be about experiencing or releasing a blockage in one’s fifth chakra, the throat—energy moves or does not move through the conveyor belt, and what needs to be expressed is either being conveyed or is not conveyed. it’s not entirely clear to me because “undoing” has two different meanings—ruin or unfastening—you may be employing both here, which is an endlessly fascinating choice for this poem. the psychological function is of the fifth chakra is related to communication. when energy is moving through this chakra unimpeded it results in creativity and creative identity. the element that keeps this chakra blocked is lies or dishonesty. i’m not suggesting that you are being dishonest to others because i know that’s not in your nature, but perhaps it could be worth considering that, if there is a metaphorical blockage being expressed by this poem, it could be related to a lack of candor with the self. 211008 ... raze wow. i hadn't thought about any of that! in all honesty, that little poem came out of thinking, "my throat is dry because of this insane humidity. i bet it looks like a peach right now. what if my throat really *were* a peach? okay. go." the bit about the conveyor had to do with thinking of the throat as an elevator, with the act of swallowing taking something down to a deeper level, and then riffing on the alternate meaning of the word. it was just an exercise in wordplay when i wrote it. but it's really interesting to dig into these things and explore their possible meanings. 211008 ... tender square your self-directed writing prompts are a source of never-ending fascination, j. 211008 what's it to you? who go blather from