It’s my dream, to offend
the puritans so much
that my sales escalate,
joining that elite class,
forbidden fruit.
Even named my first book
Pomegranates,
the very seeds of desire
and taboo. Yes, ban me
in Boston. Don’t
burn me in Salem.
About the Creator
Harper Lewis
I'm a weirdo nerd who’s extremely subversive. I like rocks, incense, and all kinds of witchy stuff. Intrusive rhyme bothers me.
I’m known as Dena Brown to the revenuers and pollsters.
MA English literature, College of Charleston
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More stories from Harper Lewis and writers in Poets and other communities.
Letter to my Daughter
You have a choice to make here: are you going to continue the cycle, or are you going to break it? Keeping your son away from me hurts him; there’s no question about that. I thought you were being hurt, and I was trying to protect you, not punish anyone when I kept your grandfather away from you. I have said that I was wrong and I am sorry, but there was never any malice involved.
By Harper LewisExclusive • 2 months ago
Comments (2)
That line about wanting to be “forbidden fruit” made me pause, because it feels half-joke, half-hunger—like the urge isn’t just to shock, but to be seen as dangerous enough to matter. Naming the book Pomegranates ties it so cleanly to desire and consequence that the last line almost feels like a plea, not to be erased, just not to be destroyed. It made me think about how often artists flirt with censorship as proof of impact. Do you see offense here as a strategy, or as something that just naturally happens when you write honestly?
I'm banned in Vocal, great ideas and hope you get banned in Boston and loved in Salem