STOP Throwing Out Your Pomegranate Peels!
the woman in the video says, and they go on an immaculate

baking sheet in her immaculate kitchen, splayed face-
down in slashed bursts of red. after the oven, and the blender

and the coffee filter, they’re tea — antioxidant-rich tea,
enjoy! — and then, again, she’s saying, STOP
throwing out your pomegranate peels! my
pomegranate peels, I think, and I consider it, the effervescent
life where pomegranate peels are something I have,
and concern myself with, and have time to make
tea out of. I know how to make tea out of the peels,
when we’re done — a tiktok lady showed me, I’ll say;
the fruit is ripped grinning-wide, I’m cross-legged on the
floor with you eating in luxurious dripping handfuls, no spoons,
our fingers stained and mouths red as if, or because, we tore
each other’s lips. you’re going to laugh
and say, not tonight my love, please. next time.
and because this is the languid life where we
have pomegranates and time to spare: out go the peels
through the window, and stars kiss them as I’m kissing you,
and not you or I or the window or the stars or the peels — or the unmade tea,
are wasted, as you lead me to bed
and scattered, uneaten seeds form their own constellation
across our kitchen floor

Peter Fray-Witzer is a third-year Comparative Literature major at Oberlin. His poetry has been published
in Laurel Moon, The Plum Creek Review, and Two Groves Review and has been shortlisted for the Letter
Review Prize for Poetry. Aside from writing, his hobbies include riding his bike way, way too fast on the
Oberlin streets and sidewalks. In “STOP Throwing Out Your Pomegranate Peels!” he explores the idea that
uniquely modern concepts can inspire poetic work, even though the genre can sometimes trend toward
more “classical” themes.