This selection, chosen by guest editor nat raum, is from We Had Mansions by Mandy Shunnarah (Diode Editions, 2025).
marriage, as peaches rot on the counter
He’s the one who bought them; had the peaches
delivered from New Century CSA, the organic farm
the next county over. He’s the one who bakes,
coaxing pies & cobblers from Ohio’s fruits.
I’m more for simple pleasures. I eat my peaches raw, no
condiment adornment, not bothering to slice. Teeth
puncturing downy skin, juice trailing down jawline. Chin
working to contain the nectar before it catches my shirt.
Neither of us touches the peaches. I wait for him
to bake, not wanting to spoil his ingredients; he waits
for me to eat, not wanting to rob me of a snack. We
do not speak of the peaches, only watch as they transform
from succulent & squeezable to wrinkled & age-spotted,
rotting before our eyes. When the mottled fruit is too bruised,
too speckled with mold, too sunken as graying orange skin
reaches inward for its pitted core, I take the peaches to the compost.
We should have eaten those, he says. We should have talked
more, should have loved better, should have eaten the peaches
when they were ripe & full & round with possibility,
fresh from the farmer’s truck when we still had the chance.
Yes, my husband. There are many things we should have done.
Mandy Shunnarah (they/them) is an Appalachian and Palestinian-American writer in Columbus, Ohio. Their essays, poetry, and short stories have been published in Electric Literature, The Rumpus, Black Warrior Review, and others. They won the Porter House Review 2024 Editor’s Prize in Poetry and are supported by the Ohio Arts Council, the Greater Columbus Arts Council, and the Sundress Academy for the Arts. Their first book, Midwest Shreds: Skating Through America’s Heartland, was released in 2024 from Belt Publishing, and their second book, a poetry collection titled We Had Mansions, was published by Diode Editions in 2025. Read more at mandyshunnarah.com.
nat raum (b. 1996) is a queer disabled artist, writer, and editor based on unceded Piscataway and Susquehannock land in Baltimore. They hold an MFA from the University of Baltimore and a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Past and upcoming publishers of their work include Poet Lore, beestung, Baltimore Beat, Split Lip Magazine, BRUISER, and others. Find them online at natraum.com.
