EMERGING ARTISTS & WRITERS
CHLOE JESSE
PLUMS
the warm summer night almost as sticky sweet as the plum juice dripping down our chins. and we laugh and speak our dreams because now we are at last united. we feel the happiness of a thousand singing souls gyrating across the dance floor, and the magical syrup of lilting lullabies that sing young babies to sleep. and we are okay as we spit the seeds and wipe the juice from our mouths. everything around us radiates happiness, we breathe it: we laugh happiness into existence. and you hug me and i hug you back and we feed each other plums and draw smiles on our lips with the succulent juice that stains our skin and splatters the sky with fiery iridescence. we’re swinging through the night without a care in the world and our feet won’t ever touch the ground. i’m not scared and you’re not scared and we don’t tremble with the woes of yesterday or the worries of tomorrow.
we’re eating juicy plums on a sticky summer evening and all we have is now.
Chloe Jesse just turned 18 years old, currently lives in Eugene, Oregon, and writing is her passion. She has been writing ever since she can remember, and last summer she attended Session 1 of the Iowa Young Writers' Studio. This is her first publication.