Poem
Merlinda Bobis
SIESTA
SIESTA
SIESTA
take me notin mid-winter,
only to thaw the frost
of your old bones,
imagining how stallions rear
in the outback,
hooves raised to this august light,
kakaibang liwanag,
kasimputla’t kasinglamig
ng hubad na peras.¹
but take me
on a humid afternoon
made for siesta,
when my knees almost ache
from daydreaming of mangoes,
tree-ripe
and just right,
at higit sa lahat
mas matamis, makatas
kaysa sa unang halik ng mansanas.²
—————————
¹‘alien light,
as pale and cold
as a naked pear’
plucked from my tongue you have wrapped
in a plastic bag with the $3 mango
from woolworths
while i conjured an orchard
from back home—mangoes gold and not for sale, and
²‘above all,
sweeter, more succulent
than the first kiss of the apple.’
© 1998, Merlinda Bobis
From: Summer was a fast train without terminals
Publisher: Spinifex, North Melbourne
From: Summer was a fast train without terminals
Publisher: Spinifex, North Melbourne
Poems
Poems of Merlinda Bobis
Close
SIESTA
take me notin mid-winter,
only to thaw the frost
of your old bones,
imagining how stallions rear
in the outback,
hooves raised to this august light,
kakaibang liwanag,
kasimputla’t kasinglamig
ng hubad na peras.¹
but take me
on a humid afternoon
made for siesta,
when my knees almost ache
from daydreaming of mangoes,
tree-ripe
and just right,
at higit sa lahat
mas matamis, makatas
kaysa sa unang halik ng mansanas.²
—————————
¹‘alien light,
as pale and cold
as a naked pear’
plucked from my tongue you have wrapped
in a plastic bag with the $3 mango
from woolworths
while i conjured an orchard
from back home—mangoes gold and not for sale, and
²‘above all,
sweeter, more succulent
than the first kiss of the apple.’
From: Summer was a fast train without terminals
SIESTA
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