There was no more fruit in the land of the brave, no sweetness to be had only bitter restrictions carried out where ivory guards and their dark weapons stood watch over fields of captured rainbows. I saw them, strawberry, apple, and orange, all confined to a space unimaginable, outlawed and othered while the myth of their taste grew strange and soured under the tongues of the fledging masses who knew nothing, but only the dire consequences of

one,

more,

bite.

Still, few tried to free them, to shatter the myth as the modern Hesperides guarded their discordant treasure and carry those few precious, away. Some were lucky enough, past the guise of a zombified public, risked death at the hand of red hats and white oblivions, merely to savor the taste of something that had been taken away from the world. Taken away from me. I didn’t know how long this prohibition, slavery, confinement might tarry, though to persist was all I could do if it meant more fruit in the land of the brave; if it meant,

one,

more,

bite.

Maxwell I. Gold is a gay Jewish Rhysling Award nominated prose poet, focusing on weird fiction. His work has been featured in numerous publications including Spectral Realms, Space and Time Magazine, Weirdbook Magazine, Startling Stories, and others. Most recently Maxwell's prose poetry is slated to appear in the latest anthology from Written Backwards, Chiral Mad 5, from Bram Stoker Award winning editor Michael Bailey. Also, Maxwell's work has appeared alongside authors such as Gemma Files, Brian Evenson, Linda D. Addison, Lee Murrary, Alessandro Manzetti and others. His forthcoming debut prose poetry collection Oblivion in Flux is scheduled to be released this August from Crystal Lake Publishing.