1 – Tropical greeting
A welcoming sign –
The glistening succulence
Of tropical rain.
2 – A papaya by any other name…
Betik petik, kates
Wan shou kuo, kuntaia. And
Kavunagaci.
3 – Dakini food
Black seeds glistening
Piled high as an offering
to the transcendent
4 – 80%
Versatile papain
Digests protein to keep clear
American beer
5 – Means of support
Scarred by falling leaves
Each spongy and fibrous trunk
Endures, coffee-grey.
6 – Flower biology
Hermaphroditic,
White flowers pentandric. So
diversely petalled.
7 – Flesh
Flesh flushed fiery hues
Sweet as tropical sunshine –
El Dorado’s gold.
8 – Just like a human
Tolerates cold, but
Needs warmth and humidity
to truly ripen
9 – Pharmacopia
Combats dyspepsia.
Degums natural silk. Also
Removes stray freckles.
10 – Columbus
Parched sailors gorging
On sweet new delights. Praised the
“Fruit of the angels”
11 “One farmer in the village borrowed 20,000 baht – four months’ wages – to become a papaya farmer. But he did not know how or when to sow his papaya seeds and lost everything.”
Knowing when to sow
Separates rich harvest from
Catastrophic loss.
12 – Serving suggestion
Sweetness of lush life
Made poignant and more vivid
By sourness of lime
13 – They just don’t taste the same here…
Traveller at home
Yearns for journey’s sweetness. So
Must depart again.
This poem was inspired by a prompt at poefusion to write a 13 part poem around a single image, inspired by Wallace Stevens’ poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.
With the taste of genuine South American papaya fresh in my mouth and mind, it took very little time to choose what I wanted to write about! I’m not quite sure why I made each verse a haiku – I suppose I wanted a form that gave me short but structured verses. I made unashamed use of google to generate new ideas and images – fascinating what you can find out! Though fitting some of this information into 5 or 7 syllable lines was challenging, it probably stopped me overindulging and boring everyone with trivia!
Words that sing 