Peaches and Pears — Summary

i love the way fresh fruit fills the air with its sweetness, makes the skin feel all sticky as it dribbles down your chin, dances across your taste buds, and slides oh so gently down your throat; now every bite i take is stained by your words and suddenly, maybe, fruit isn't quite as sweet as i remember.

"Wait your turn!" "Next time, I won't even tell you we bought any." "Selfish." "If you go first, you'll eat like a pig." "It's all gone, it had to be you!" "Greedy." "How fat can you be?" "Wow."

Show the whole poemHide the poem

Learn Poems app

Try the Learn Poems app

Everything from the website trainer, and more: new exercises, voice recording and sharing, reminders, quick review.

The poem begins with a joyful picture of eating fresh fruit: the sweet smell, the sticky chin, the juice sliding down your throat. Then it turns. The speaker admits that every bite is now "stained by your words," and fruit isn't as sweet as they remember.

The second half shows what those words were. They're a string of sharp, blunt remarks about taking turns, being selfish, eating like a pig, being fat. The poem doesn't say who "you" is, but the quotes sound like they come from someone close, perhaps at home, where fruit was shared and eaten. The last one, a flat "Wow," feels the most cutting, like a dismissive shrug.

The speaker seems hurt and quietly sad. Nothing is shouted. Instead, the mood moves from warm and sensory to cold and uncomfortable, showing how cruel comments about eating can ruin something that used to be a simple pleasure.

Read also

More by Ancient Artifact

All poems
AngryAncient Artifact

Cheap Shot

"Go sell yourself to someone else." i've forgiven you for saying this, i really truly have. it was said in a time of anger and spite, bubbling out of your throat like vomit,
ContemplativeAncient Artifact

Pinky Promises

for every time you failed to come through you should have broken your pinky because promises mean nothing if you don't lose something in return
AnxiousAncient Artifact

Combustion

it started down at his feet licking his toes with just bearable heat but then it crawled up and up and up singeing his hair and scarring his lips