Honesty by Ilona Lowe

Honesty resides in the softness of decay

The cloying sweetness of rot;

Pear skin bruised in russet, slime left on fingertips

The wrinkling wither of youth ceasing-

Poignant, violent thing

Maturing of matter mistaken for the paling of beauty

Fly stricken, contagious disease

Awfully sincere

March had burgeoned petals of white

Yellow freckled skin grazed and picked

Recalled only once the thing true for all alive

Soured, damned, tender

Came for it

Ilona Lowe is an author and visual artist. She is a 23 year old immigrant living in the UK. Her work has been featured in Letters From Milena Magazine, and Dirty Dykes Magazine. She has been shortlisted for the ‘Then and Now’ TogetherInTheUk poetry prize.