Tropical Fruit

The watermelon is ripe

when the agouti takes a bite.

The guava is nearly at its peak

when a jays jabs it with its beak.

The cashew fruit is ready

when the parrot has it in its belly.

We have yet to see

if it will be we

who are the pigs

that get the figs.

Too Much

 

 Too much to see, to feel,

to hear, to smell, to taste.

Overwhelmed, I close my eyes;

senses meld into new configurations.

Music joins the wind’s caress and the scent of the jungle night.

Sounds from the sea dissolve into the taste of wine on my tongue,

and my skin remembers the heat from the noonday sun.

In and out, 

my breaths turn my self in side out,

raw and exposed to the world. 

The Belt in the Back of the Wardrobe

The belt in the back of the wardrobe

is blooming with galaxies and nebulae of green.

New worlds unsuspected,

still unseen by the Hubble telescope,

expand independently of intelligent life on earth. 

The Volunteer

  

Creamy whiteness hidden inside magenta skin, the volunteer sweet potato

joins purple, white, green, and orange, destined for roasting.  

 

Tracks in the Sand

 

Tracks in the Sand

Who made these small tracks with toes of three?

Not a bird, not a lizard, not a crab.

Not a cat, not a dog.

Not a rat, not a possum, not a person.

A shy agouti, the local “rabbit”,

comes out at dawn and comes out at dusk,

leaving only its tracks out at midday.

 

Passion Fruit Passion

 

Orange-colored, seed-filled juice lurks inside the maroon-hued passion fruit.  Flamboyant color is matched by intense taste and tartness; a treat to the tongue and to the eye.

 

Friends

Dear friends, old friends.

We talk of days bygone, days more recent, days to come.

Days we will remember; days that define our lives, define ourselves.

To be a friend is to be 

forever.

Hammock Time

The siren hammock calls to me,

with claims of rejuvenating afternoon rest.

 

Shell Ginger in the Rain

Shell ginger blossoms fall heavily from their protective sepals,

collecting raindrops as they dangle toward the ground below. 

 

Small Whelk

Spiral gyres of decreasing size 

reduced to a skeleton by water and sand

tell of years gone past

in life and death of the small whelk.