loquat jelly lips
Francesca Rendle-Short

Marj’s lips were the colour of the finest loquat jelly that summer. From a jar her friend gave her, Molly spread the syrupy mixture onto buttery toast each breakfast.
The night before Kevin arrived home from a fortnight in Yass, the two women drank hot black tea together. The ceiling fan whirred. As they parted, Molly licked Marj’s transparent-red lips in a nip of a kiss. Loquat jelly lips. Sugary sweet and sticky.

Francesca Rendle-Short is the author of Imago (1997 ACT Book of the Year) and in 2005 co-wrote a short play called Us. Francesca Rendle-Short is currently writing a set of companion works about Queensland in the 1970s, a novel and a fictional memoir. She is a lecturer in the creative writing program at the University of Canberra.

From: Imago
p 130

Website: http://www.spinifexpress.com.au