POETRY WEEK 2025 CONTEST
Runner-up
BY ELAINA EICHER
Copyright is held by the author.
One has to break you to enjoy your company.
Which is backward.
Usually, someone breaks after years of company.
Green, like envy. Like limes.
Like cartoon aliens.
Like fresh buds on the trees.
Your heart is a mix of feelings.
Bitter, salty, and rough;
You’re not for everyone.
A rigid interior requires a hard bite to reap reward.
You come from the trees and
a bite of you is pleasure for one and death for another.
It’s like sand, your shell.
Like bleached granite.
Like khaki shorts.
Beige and boring, it
attempted to protect your soul
and left a crack.
Pry away your shield and you’re exposed.
You’re a lot like people,
Little pistachio.
You’re complex.
One never knows if you’ll be
sweet or salty, soft or rough.
Hard to get to but worth the effort.
And yet
the wrong people find you
and break you
and chew you up
and spit you out.
The walls meant to keep you safe drew their interest.
And now you lay broken.
***
Elaina Eicher is a graduate student at Western Michigan University getting her MA in Teaching Secondary Education. Her Bachelors degree is in English Literature. She was raised in Sturgis, Michigan, alongside her three sisters. Elaina draws inspiration for her work from her childhood experiences in rural Michigan and the things she’s continually learning as she ponders the world.