poetry by michelle lizet flores

Mango Season

The mango tree smells sweet. 
I pull a fruit off the branch. 
I take it inside, to the kitchen. 
I stand over the sink,
bite into the skin,
and peel it back piece by piece. 
I suck on each fiber, feeling the strings tangle in my teeth. 
The juice drips down my forearms into the skins
(an ever growing puddle of orange colored juice and water fills the basin). 
I find the bone and rake my teeth against it, sucking out the meat. 
The sun begins to set.
The wind makes the leaves shutter. 
I toss sheets of peel in the basin. 
The bone is dry and wheatish now. 
I drop it into the sink. 
I lick my arms and fingers and the crease in my elbow and my upper lip. 
I step outside again and take off all of my clothes. 
The sun is hiding now. 
I step into the pool. 
My skin is pale and pimpled. 
My hair is dark and limp. 
I float and try to find a cloud in the sky. 
All I see are planes and stars. 

Michelle Lizet Flores is a graduate of FSU and NYU creative writing programs. She has previously been published in magazines and journals such as The Talon Review, NCTE’s English Journal, and Travel Latina. A finalist for the Juan Felipe Herrera Award for Poetry, she is the author of the chapbooks Cuentos from the Swamp and Memoria, as well as the picture book, Carlito the Bat Learns to Trick or Treat. Her first full-length collection of poetry, Invasive Species, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. Find out more at michellelizetflores.com.