after Brigit Pegeen Kelly

morning brown-grey

& the bruises

pooled dark beneath skin

of a peach sliced for breakfast

her hand trembles

& the paring knife

unearths a stone fruit pit

pink & marrowed

a tumor is large like this

& the ache

& the ache constellates

& the cells

& the cells galaxy

inside the lymph node

& the daughter swallows moons

of soft peach slices—:

how they bitter

like dust inside her mouth

Jackie Chicalese is currently an MFA candidate at the University of Arkansas. Her work has appeared in Salt Hill, Noctua Review, Italian Americana, and elsewhere.