Seasoned

By Pam Martin-Lawrence

Giant as a redwood, brown like aged mahogany.
Lianas for veins, completely climbable.
And don’t get me started on how he smells of cedar!

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He flexes limber as a larch in a spring wind, yet no green sapling, he:
all arid and parched, sirocco-spoken, deep and dry,
he ignites me and together we make sparks fly, burning hot and hard.
Tempered by fire.

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I read his seasons like braille on silver birch bark
– cut him open, you’d see every
blighted winter
and bountiful summer
encompassing his years.

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Resilient, he is strong enough to bear the load of my love.

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Pam Martin-Lawrence lives on a small island with a long-suffering partner, writing novels and collecting emotional support plants and ‘book boyfriends. She has had over thirty pieces of poetry and short fiction published in various literary journals and anthologies, including Passionfruit Review, Micromance, KissMet Quarterly, Bunker Squirrel Magazine, and Hotch Potch Literature. She is the author of ‘The Tale of a Dragon’ (Alien Buddha Press 2024). Chocolate is her kryptonite.