PICKLED PLUMS

Alina Stefanescu

I dub them, those three citizens
of my womb, the ones I didn't
deport. Although I know plums
are hard to grow on foreign soil.
Plums are finicky, unreliable,
quick to revolt or pout.

Like my mother, I planted
a Romanian plum sapling
in the northeast corner of the yard
to keep evil away. Like my father,
I take three thimbles of t​uica 
before dinner to prepare the throat
for what the mouth may say.

Alina Stefanescu was born in Romania and lives in Birmingham, Alabama. She serves as Co-Director of PEN Birmingham. Her debut fiction collection, Every Mask I Tried On, won the Brighthorse Prize and was published in May 2018. Her writing can be found in diverse journals, including Prairie Schooner, North American Review, FLOCK, Southern Humanities Review, Crab Creek Review, Up the Staircase Quarterly, Virga, Whale Road Review, and others. She serves as Poetry Editor for Pidgeonholes, Co-Founder of 100,000 Poets for Change Birmingham, and proud board member of Magic City Poetry Festival. A finalist for the 2019 Kurt Brown AWP Prize, the 2019 Greg Grummer Poetry Prize, the 2019 Frank McCourt Prize, and the 2019 Streetlight Magazine Poetry Contest, Alina won the 2019 River Heron Poetry Prize.  More online at www.alinastefanescuwriter.com or @aliner.