Published in the Amore: Love Poems anthology (Spring 2016).
Under mango green
sheets, down comforter
the tropical colors of
papayas’ and cantaloupes’
inner fruit, your walls pomegranate,
avocado furniture, ceiling a bright plum.
We would slurp mango slices
on piled pillows, legs tangled together,
juices dripping from our wrists,
your soft chin, lips skating
across the heel of a hand,
trailing sticky liquid behind.
I never got to tell you how
those tastes influenced me:
my love of fleshy unknown fruits,
of lush brazen women, the way
I still think of you when I savor
sweet juice creeping down my chin.
Austin Eichelberger 