Por Favor No Maltratar Los Aguacates by Laryssa Wirstiuk

Por Favor No Maltratar Los Aguacates

“Please do not
abuse avocados”:

written in black
marker on blue-

lined legal paper
and taped to a box

at a Yonkers bodega.
Someone has felt

for ripeness, deemed
these precious;

one inept squeeze
could bruise

the fruit
and render it

inedible.
I’m no longer

sure if I could pass
for ready, if I’m worthy

of such a sign.
Forever I’ve waited

for competent hands
to protect me

from the careless,
the passersby.

by Laryssa Wirstiuk

Editor’s Note: My first favorite poems were those written by William Carlos Williams and Theodore Roethke—imagery rules their lines. This poem evokes that sense of wonder I felt as a teen. Its imagery and enjambment belie the underlying introspection of the poem’s narrator. The title is a clever nod to the language of New York’s myriad bodegas.