“He Begins With My Body” by Anthony Aguero

Says I’m not picky.
Says I’ll eat just about anything
Except olives and how they remind him of a vulgar
entrance. How you tell me I am trying to protect
My body. How I allow you to take the power from
My sweet fingertips. I am up in the middle of the
Night swallowing a jar of olives and
Burning the tips of each finger that told you
You deserve the world, sweetheart. You bitter kiss.
I imagine pouring vinegar all over the diagnosis.
I imagine my spit on the ground instead of
Your mouth. I wanted to shout.
Olives are required to endure a curing process
Before they can enter the body.
To be taken in raw.
To taste the bitter core.
To have given you exactly what you wanted.
Plopped into the mouth with no after-
Thought. Without desire, but hunger
All of that hunger.
There are two methods to the curing process.
I have one. Only one. Always one.
Says he’s not picky. Says his body isn’t ready.
I am just trying to protect my body,
But I am not ready to rest in a layer of salt
You have laid out for me.

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