May Day

And in the time it took you to say my name,
I had already strung up the maypole
We spent every day turning around.
I’m sorry, I should have waited,
But I had to see what the colors would look like,
One under the other over the next.

Pears, anyone?

My grandpa has offered me a pear
A few times now
Forgetting
As he returns to the kitchen
Why anyone would refuse the dribbling delight
Of the end of summer
Days shortening but still long and hot
Buggy near the pond
Good for catching frogs
Forgetting
That if I say yes
He will not get to ask me again
For the time it takes to eat a pear
And we can sit on the porch
With sweetness overflowing
Onto the lips of these cold nights

Alison Brown is a first-year student at Yale University where she studies Chemistry and is an intern at The Yale Review. Her poem "Monarch" was published by Typishly (2020) and she received the Lara J. Coolidge poetry prize (2019).