I ate a pear
in revenge. I, Jack Cade,
guzzled this most wide-hipped of fruits
became your sticky renegade
I ate a pear
but not before I weighed
its fat bottom in my hands and traced
the bulge of its belly with a blade
I ate, and the hunks, gently
curved as a loggerhead turtle shell
danced in my mouth like flames
left splinters in my throat
I ate a pear
in revenge. Your renegade
has come to say you haven't the right
to behave as if you were betrayed
I ate a pear
The doctors were relieved. I laid
the tangled remains in the carapace past,
picked skin from my teeth, felt betrayed
