Gala apples decay under your dirty
clothes in the closet as blue mold
forms on pasta in the fridge and
a plate of crackers with peanut butter
draws sugar ants across the counter
in the group home where you barely live
like a delusion among shared rooms.
The scent of oatmeal cookies baking
did not silence your broken voice
insisting that anything you eat will burn or
poison. My gifts of groceries waste into
compost with no garden to transform
its sour leavings into flower and food.
I do not know how to feed you.
Claire Hamner Matturro has been a journalist, a lawyer, an organic blueberry farmer, and taught at Florida State University College of Law and University of Oregon School of Law. She is the author of eight novels, including a series of comedic legal thrillers published by HarperCollins. Her poetry has been published in various journals including Slant, One Art, The Lascaux Review, and Glassworks. She’s an associate editor at Southern Literary Review.