West Trade Review Spring Preview 2021: "To You, Who is Still Learning to Fall in Love with Her Body" by Claire Jussel

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Claire Jussel

Claire Jussel is an emerging poet, writer, and artist from Boise, Idaho. She graduated from St. Olaf College in 2019 with degrees in English and history. Her work has appeared in The Quarry. She currently resides Minnesota and is a bookseller at Wild Rumpus Books in Minneapolis.

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To You, Who is Still Learning to Fall in Love with Her Body

and is leaning over the kitchen sink

eating a nectarine—

you didn’t always like fruit,

but here you are, back arching

involuntarily at the first bite

of that bright, blemished

thing. Do you remember

what your mother told you about detecting ripeness?

That the best things are both firm

and soft,

(and lightly fragrant)

Say the same for yourself,

to the ever-present softness

of your belly,

when summer hills draw you lean

and when the pale flesh

rises back, look

how the strong-domed stomach

holds you up.

Have you seen those misshapen

fruits kept from market?

Lemons with curling ram horns, triple wide

strawberries, topographically dynamic apples—

all good fruit,

though they are coiled

and curved

and lumpy.

Love is not far off, my pigeon-breasted,

rib-flared,

spine-swayed dear.

Who, a year ago, would have imagined

you, with nectarine syrup dripping

from coated finger tips,

fleshy juice caught

in the corners of your lips,

nibbling down to that slippery pit.