Bite
Satisfy the bloodlust
Cover teeth in a film of 
Dark rouge nectar
It runs through me 
And sits hard like the stone in my mouth
I try to break it 
But to no avail

I am the stone 
I sit beneath a layer of blood and 
Sweetness
And you pull me into you 
Expecting 
Sweetness 
And I give you the crunch 
of another life 
Waiting to happen

Thoughts.

Having posted a couple prose-like poems, I thought I would take a more metaphorical approach to my next one, and wrote this in the middle of the night recently in the notes app of my phone. I figured that, with entitling this section ‘thoughts’ and, my favourite thing (apart from writing it) is analysing poetry, I would do an analysis of my own poem to aid understanding. Of course, a quick disclaimer is in order: even though I did write this myself, it is open to interpretation and my analysis is my own opinion, therefore meaning any other reading is no less valid than my own. The poem is not completely mine once I have ‘released’ it, and one of the beauties of art is its lack of limitations. With this in mind, I shall begin…

The poem is, overall, an extended metaphor for a difficult relationship. Fruit in itself is very sensual, as it engages with the oral sense of taste, is ‘sweet’ (coupled with the use of ‘nectar’) and, with cherries specifically, the colour red brings with it stereotypically provocative connotations. To begin with, the cherry represents the love itself, the biting engaging with the sense of taste and then connoting a vampiric idea, supported by the mention of ‘bloodlust’, ‘teeth’ and the ‘dark rouge’ image. Not only is this the classically gothic idea of biting the neck and feeding off one’s blood, but also, by directly comparing the juice of the cherry to blood, therefore to human flesh, it foreshadows the following metaphor of the speaker being the cherry. It continues, ‘”it” running through [them]’ meaning blood through veins and feelings of lust and love. But immediately after, this image is juxtaposed, the liquid, fluid idea becoming ‘hard’ and almost uncomfortable. Using ‘and’ instead of ‘but’ at the beginning of the line demonstrates the simultaneous nature of the bittersweet feelings and the speaker’s anticipation of the relationship feeling this way. The stone here is the issues in the relationship that were inevitable and ‘unbreakable’, or unresolvable. Ironically, in this case, the act of shattering would be the solution rather than the issue itself.

The second stanza shows the speaker explaining that they are the whole relationship in essence; the one who fell the hardest, but also the one who caused the issue. They admit their fault, simply stating that they seem to be a sweet, kind person, but within them sits an uncompromising problem that clearly shows the relationship is not meant to be. The stone is the cause of the relationship ending and the beginning of life both literally (plant the stone and grow a cherry tree) and the life of the speaker (they have a life waiting for them, without their now-ex-partner and they are tethered until otherwise released from the toxic relationship).

To summarise, the speaker is a troubled person, who enters the relationship drawing in their partner, perhaps to fill an otherwise unacknowledged void, and subsequently ends up causing the demise of the relationship. The speaker comes out the other side ultimately wishing to be free immediately, after understanding that the fault is their own and both people would be better off separated. Though short, it can demonstrate a large journey of maturity.