Fija Callaghan
Forbidden Fruit
Let us give a voice to the first woman,
and reveal to her a world that lies
just beyond her reach. Let us bring respite
to the fairest of them all,
and teach the cost of blood-red lips
and snow-white skin, so when she wakes
she will understand the tithe that she must pay.
Let us watch the judgement of Paris together.
Let us stand at water’s edge and laugh
as ships collide beneath the flag
of one man’s selfish love. Let them learn
the truth of what such love can bring.
Let us flourish on the isles
of Avalon and Hesperides. Let us carry stars
and pluck ’till time and times are done
the sacred knowledge of the moon
and golden mysteries of the sun. Let the boundaries
twixt seen and unseen crumble.
Let us drink deeply from the river of wisdom
and crack the world apart.
(With acknowledgements to William Butler Yeats)
_______________
Fija Callaghan is a storyteller and poet who has been recognized by a number of awards, including shortlisting for the HG Wells Short Story Prize in 2021. Her work can be found in venues like Gingerbread House, Mythic Magazine, Howl: New Irish Writing, and elsewhere, and her debut collection is forthcoming from Neem Tree Press in early 2025. You can find out more about her at www.fijacallaghan.com.
Author’s Backstory: “Forbidden Fruit” is an exploration of the vast folklore of apples. I’ve always been fascinated by this seemingly incongruous fruit; it’s started wars, opened doorways to other worlds, cursed humanity with self-knowledge, been dipped in poison and offered as a false gift between mother and daughter. Perhaps some of this cultural significance comes from its hardiness. Apples keep and travel better than almost any other fruit — certainly better than the “Plump unpeck’d cherries, / Melons and raspberries” of Rossetti’s Goblin Market. They have power over us, and they endure.
Note that the fifteenth through seventeenth lines of this poem — …and pluck ’till time and times are done / the sacred knowledge of the moon / and golden mysteries of the sun — is respectfully pilfered from William Butler Yeats’ “The Song of the Wandering Aengus”: And pluck till time and times are done, / The silver apples of the moon, / The golden apples of the sun.
Editor’s Notes and/or Image Credit: As input to the Microsoft Designer: “abstract: forbidden fruit: Eve, Helen of Troy, and Snow White with a background of the silver crescent moon and golden sun,” produced an interesting complementing image.
