The street vendor fries the wrapped plaintain bananas with slice of langka (jackfruit) and brown sugar in hot pan. The turon sizzles to crispy amber under the humid afternoon sun. We wait, not with bottled cold water, but with buko (young coconut). My shirt has a bit of stain from spitting out black seeds of atis (sugar apple) under the neighbor's guava tree. My friend is munching on santol (wild mangosteen) with salt. Bittersweet and rough, he is squirming with its sourness, while becoming ecstatic with each bite of the pitted fruit. He makes a lot of faces as sweat rolls off his neck. All I can think of is playing hide & seek in the cool shaded park.
sudden summer rain
crashes the roof at night,
drowning the tuko's cries
*tuko lizards (or small geckos)
Posted for D'verse Poets Pub - Poetics: Dog Days ~ I am incorporating my hot summers (April to May) in the Philippines, where I grew up.
hmmmm... this has the delicious taste of a different culture with all its scents and colors...
ReplyDeleteYour words allowed me to taste...
ReplyDeletethis is my favourite time of the year.
ReplyDeleteYou have given us such a vivid picture of what tropical summer is like, Grace. I think I would like to try 'wild mangosteen.'
ReplyDeleteWonderful haibun! This is such a glorious picture of a tropical summer and I like the thought of that little girl playing hide and seek in the park. The food of this is making me hungry. Such exotic flavors and such fun being had!
ReplyDeleteWow, this is so beautiful, so similar to the summers I have lived in India - my neighbours had a tree of the fruit you have shown here - and truly summer is the season of fruits....and fried banana with jackfruit? that sounds so delicious...
ReplyDelete"fried banana with jack fruit"? Oh, hell yeah, sounds & reads scrumptious. A terrific haibun for sure, & your message is clarion, putting us into tropical state of mind.
ReplyDeleteThis is a tropical tastebud teaser, Grace! You served a delectable haibun.
ReplyDeleteI love it. Reading this poem was like taking a mini vacation to the Phillipines. My daughter-in-law is from there and she remembers picking ripe mangos when she was out playing, enjoying the juicy fruit. Now she lives in Regina where the winters are 40 below and the summers are 40 above. Yikes.
ReplyDeleteYour vision and brilliance allows me to taste this poem.
ReplyDeleteLove it!
I love the hot and exotic atmosphere you have created and you make me want to try all the fruit and dishes you mention. Great haibun!
ReplyDeleteA summer filled with heat and food
ReplyDeleteNice!! and I love the picture!!
ReplyDeleteIn Brazil I saw bananas like this!
Lovely and delightful images......
ReplyDeleteGrace, you have drawn me through a maze of afternoon laziness and fruit-eating, to "hiding and seeking" in cool park. Same in Philippine Islands as in Ohio! (As you brought me to remember!)
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ReplyDeleteOoooh for those lovely fruits - your haibun takes me back to my tropical time. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteVery much similar to what we have.The fruits and the treatment are the same except their names.
ReplyDeleteHank
I like all the new-to-me words in this. Sounds like some yummy summer fruit. Peace, Linda
ReplyDeleteLovely! Plus I learned a lot of words. :)
ReplyDeleteYou infused this with so many sensations, allowing us to experience being there with you. Nicely done.
ReplyDeleteAh.. to feel the sweat of Summer on fruits of Tropics..
ReplyDeleteoh.. to know the feel of play in child's feet of
wonder now.. in sunshine hands of joy..
Where dog days forget..
and children's
eyes stay.. Now..:)
So interesting...I really enjoyed the new fruits...as they aroused my curiosity and my taste buds!
ReplyDeleteI can relate to the hot humid summers but all the rest of it would be very different memories Grace.
ReplyDeleteI love the childhood memories weaved into this... the tastes of all those fruits that I can only imagine what their real taste truly is.
ReplyDeleteAtis brings back childhood memories to me. I think we have a tree then but I know we'll always have this fruit at home. :)
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ReplyDeletehttp://asthecrackerheadcrumbles.blogspot.com/2015/08/a-sunday-drive_9.html
Its cool. I love experiencing new cultures, particularly through their foods. Ate plantains when we were in florida. When we lived in Florida we have an orange tree, a banana tree and a lime tree. I used to go out with my son and eat them right off the trees.
ReplyDelete