Juice and Sap: An Origin Story

Margaret O'Hare

My mother is a honeydew melon,
Growing sweet as the summer sun
Blooms freckle bouquets across her nose.

Her stories are sticky and thick,
Pouring gold like maple syrup
Dripping off of her chin.

My father is a palmful of pine needles,
Sharp and smooth and
Prickly as hell.

But when December frost
Suffocates fickle leaves
in its diamond crust,
he is evergreen.

The best parts of me are only
Borrowed hair-ties and stolen buttons.
Gifts from a melon’s fragrant flesh
and a pine needle’s peppermint sap.

A July and January blend.

Margaret O’Hare has been writing poetry since middle school. She attended the New England Young Writers Conference at Breadloaf in 2017 and has been published in Scintilla, the Dwight School literary magazine. She won an Honorable Mention for poetry in the 2017 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, as well as four "Silver Keys" in poetry (for both portfolio and individual submission) the following year.