Peaches and Dares

“Do I dare to eat a peach?"

is Elliot’s classic poetic question.

My smiling sweetheart

brings Carolina peaches to me

in a baskets from the farm market,

every summer.

We dare to bite into whole ripe globes

savoring flesh and juice; dare

cut and slice others to

enjoy over ice cream,

plain in bowls, together.

Together, we dare to cook many

into jam and pies,

transforming even the imperfect

into delectable delights.

Yes, with the scent of peaches

on our hands;

their sweetness in our mouths,

we dare all this and more--

together.

🩷🩷🩷

Joan Leotta plays with words on page and stage. Internationally published as essayist, poet, short story writer, and novelist, she’s a two-time nominee (fiction and poetry) for Pushcart and Best of the Net, nominee for Western Peace Prize, and a 2022 runner-up in Robert Frost Competition. Her essays, poems, CNF, and fiction have appeared or are forthcoming in Impspired, One Art, Lothlorien, Ekphrastic Review, Verse Virtual, Gargoyle, Silver Birch, Yellow Mama, Mystery Tribune, Synkroniciti, MacQueen’s Quinterly, Pure Slush, several Murderous Ink Anthologies, and others. Her poetry chapbooks are Languid Lusciousness with Lemon, (Finishing Line on Amazon) and Feathers on Stone, (Main Street Rag from their bookstore). Joan Leotta performs folk and personal tales of food, family, strong women on stages across the country and in UK and Europe, teaches classes on writing and presenting, and offers a one woman show bringing Louisa May Alcott to today’s audiences. You can contact her at joanleotta@gmail.com