Pincushion Heart - Aidan Derrico

My heart is that little red tomato

On my grandmother’s side table,

From which I delighted in

Pulling out and pushing in

Yellow-headed sewing pins,

Feeling the give of its mysterious interior.

Some of those pins were needles,

And without the head to stop them,

If I pushed too hard, they vanished

Into the flesh, never to be seen again,

But always felt beneath the surface.

---

Aidan Derrico earned a BA in English from Elizabethtown College in 2010. She is currently honing her craft in Delaware, where she lives with her husband and an ex-street cat. She enjoys dark beverages, windy days, reading fiction and biography, and traveling, when she gets the chance. Her work has been published in "Scribble," and is forthcoming in two publications by Alternating Current press.