Sauce

oh

my life was an apple

red

delicious

bulbous and cheerfully leaden

straining branch with sweet burden

skin unblemished

a shiny siren's song for the retinas

crooning of desire

and potential energy

my parents

wanted to keep

my throat pink and unthreatened

and always

fed me bite size chunks

stewed on stovetop

Kenmore electric

into a nearly digested

mash

a mush

made for easy sliding

down

and when

tall enough

finally nourished

to adulthood's approximation

physical maturity

on the cautious

thin paste

at last able to reach

limb on tip toes

I found my first bite like poison

though its meat

was still warm from the sun

my palate

found it running through

with veins

of cold

sickening menthol

that made their way to

stomach

brutal and assaultive

yet somehow stimulating

appetite

had

this adolescent

doubled over by nausea and cramp

but wimpering

withering

with hunger

shaking the tree

making it rain fruit

eating

apple after apple

core and all

foul juices

scraps of crimson skins

flecks of pale meat

on chin and lips and whiskers

airway choked

by shards of flesh and

the cool toxic stuff

the wicked queen

turned herself blue