Bitter Seeds by Robin Ray

Photo of painting of two women on wall
Photo by Cristiano Pedroso Roussado on Unsplash
Twin sisters Fuchsia & Diamond,
twins in the sense they matured
in the same kiln, not expelled
from one womb, dance to punk
band A Testament Of Youth,
Tuesday night, Dugan’s Deli,
Iowa State University, in a burst
of non-conformity, an innocent
standard, unfurled. Rainbow hair,
safety pin couture, collision of
dreams supplants arctic stares,
turns heads in obvious defiance
to humanity’s stoic ennui. Nature
extends herself with sweet meat
cloaking her bitter seeds, but the
sisters can’t spiral unscathed
through the muted spoils of eons.
They’d escaped the racks, iron
maidens, pyres meant to purify,
only to dangle over new precipices
day beyond night. Heathens were
the lucky ones, free from the
townsfolk’s dereliction of duty

which is love thy neighbor.


 Robin Ray
Robin Ray is the author of Wetland and Other Stories (All Things That Matter Press, 2013), Obey the Darkness: Horror Stories, the novel Commoner the Vagabond, the poetry collection Welcome to Flowerville: Poetry from San Juan Commons, and one book of non-fiction, You Can’t Sleep Here: A Clown’s Guide to Surviving Homelessness. His works have appeared at Delphinium, Bangalore, Squawk Back, Outsider, and elsewhere.

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