Afternoon Nectar
- The tree’s sparse shade evaporated,
- leaving the one limb we both could reach
- to cast a temporary scar across Maria’s face.
- Her pack, limp by her side, spilled
- an orange to the uneven red earth
- separating us.
- She brusquely peeled it,
- ripping the epidermis, undeterred
- by my wry smile,
- seeking only to split
- two halves
- so we might share some afternoon nectar.


