To be read orally on Valentine’s Day
Mango Seed
sucking me in
I want you
in my teeth
licking my gums
wrapping my tongue
Juices sticking
to the rim of my chin
And your core
gently
pressing
into my lips
When you were whole
Pulpy fruit wrapped
in smart and safe skin
I caught sight of you
in a pile of many
and reached for you
Taking you in my palm
I studied your coverings
Oranges and reds
splotched with brown
Hints of green
Hopefully, I smelt you:
an almost ripe sweetness
I carried you home
And waited
To slice-in.
Then
I tasted you
incisors sinking-in
molars
chewing-through
my throat swallowing
parts of you
Your stringy fibers
sticking in
joints between my teeth.
Where am I now?
Do I pick these fibers out
fatefully savouring them
with tips of bicuspids
and swallow them farewell
Or do I leave them be
and make my way through
the rest of your flesh
To arrive at your seed,
to arrive at your core
with only lips
and remnants of flesh
coming
in between us
Salimah Valiani
Salimah Valiani is a poet, an activist, and a researcher
whose poetic synthesis of social commentary,
political-economic analysis is a philosophical meditation.
Re-interpreting meanings and frames of reference by taking distance,
the poems delve into the complexities of divisions,
and explore the Sufi notion of ’love.’
