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Date Grape by Freesia McKee – The Feminist Wire

Date Grape by Freesia McKee

Date Grape

 

“Brewer responds to protests about offensive beer name”
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, December 7th, 2016

 

What if I took the worst thing

that’s happened to you

and joked about it

 

and joked about it

Using you as both

ammunition and target

 

Puckered up

shut down

What if I pit you

 

against yourself

Only a

joke Stoked to win

 

the same old contests

If I add some sour

to the sweetness

 

how does it taste?

 

Concord seedless

purple like a bruise

wrinkled fruit

 

The bitterest grape

the stapled shut lip

All the bars I’ve jumped

 

………………over sleeping in anger

………………holding

………………that sour grape

 

………………date rape

 

Freesia McKee is a working poet. Her words have appeared in Painted Bride Quarterly, Gertrude, Argot Magazine, Burdock, and Sundress Press’s Political Punch anthology. Freesia co-hosted 57 episodes of The Subtle Forces, a weekly morning show on Riverwest Radio. She is moving this summer from Milwaukee to Miami to study poetry at Florida International University.