Excerpt from Three Coconuts
Eileen Tabios
Translucent green grapes beaded
with water glistening continue to sweat,
peaches downy and blushing
like wide-skirted belles in Southern plantations
huddle, trying to avoid my attention,
bananas ripen under my gaze
and beckon me over
with the curve of their browning backs,
three coconuts fart disdain
through their hairy asses
-- the universe at its most benign
is disturbing me, perplexed
at my concentration
on its most inconsequential of details
as I avoid showing the demeanor
of a man who has just landed a gaze
on you
innocently picking at lettuce cringing from your fingertips
. . . and so have years just disappeared.