Poetry from A.D. Ross

Unctuous Inner Organ

Original image via morgueFile

Real queens request liver, like Grimm’s deceptive stepmother,
not for taste but something bigger, a biological picture.
All the impurities caught in a salty, gritty vessel.

Earthy flavor, paired with blood-brown gravy,
fungi and onion. The dirty dish leaves
rancor on the tongue, but she grows to like it,

seared in soy and shredded ginger
to cut through the grainy texture
of a well-spent life. The metal strainer,

bad-catcher of crumbling minerals,
toxins, chemicals that tasted too good
to be true (and they were).

Anyone will tell you,
it’s a muscle move
to dine on inner organs
that filter nourishing foliage from the foreign.

A.D. Ross was born in Guntersville, Alabama, but spent over a decade in northern Virginia. After abandoning art school in Richmond, she went on to pursue writing. She now holds an MFA from George Mason University and is currently pursuing her PhD. at Auburn University while teaching World Literature. Select readings are available at www.alyssarosswrites.com.