The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Fri 12/21/2007)

[RetroLounge]

White Asparagus

Who speaks of strong currents
streaming through the legs, the breasts
of a pregnant woman
in her fourth month?

She’s young, this is her first time,
she’s slim and the nausea has gone.
Her belly’s just starting to get rounder
her breasts itch all day,

and she’s surprised that what she wants
is him
         inside her again
Oh come like a horse, she wants to say,
move like a dog, a wolf,
                  become a suckling lion-cub -

Come here, and here, and here –
but swim fast and don’t stop.

Who speaks of the green coconut uterus
the muscles sliding, a deeper undertow
and the green coconut milk that seals
her well, yet flows so she is wet
from his softest touch?

Who understands the logic
behind this desire?
Who speaks of the rushing tide
                  that awakens
her slowly increasing blood – ?
And the hunger
         raw obsession beginning
with the shape of the asparagus:
sun-deprived white and purple-shadow-veined,
she buys three kilos
of the fat ones, thicker than anyone’s fingers,
she strokes the silky heads
some are so jauntily capped...
        even the smell pulls her in–

Sujata Bhatt

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SUJATA BHATT was born in Ahmedabad, India in 1956. She is a graduate of the Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa and now lives in Germany with her husband and daughter. She has worked in the United States and Canada, where she was the Lansdowne Visiting Writer at the University of Victoria, British Columbia. She has translated Gujarati poetry into English for the Penguin Anthology of Contemporary Indian Women Poets. Her poems have been widely anthologised and have been broadcast on British, German and Dutch radio. Carcanet have published six collections of her poetry and a substantial selected poems, Point No Point (1997). Brunizem won the Alice Hunt Barlett prize and the Commonwealth Poetry Prize (Asia). Monkey Shadows (1991) was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, as was Augatora (2000). Sujata Bhatt received a Cholmondeley Award in 1991.


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:hi:

RL

[Gonzo Gardener]

1. This, sir, is, by far, the most erotic...

and steamy vegetable poetry I've ever read!

Your poem reminds me of an early childhood event...

In the spring of 1984 we accompanied my eighty six year old great aunt to the Holland, Mi. Tulip Time Parade. It was her first such event. Auntie sat erect, perched on her roadside lawn chair admiring the flowery floats and noisy high school marching bands. About half way through we began to fear that she had grown weary of the whole affair. You see, auntie was a very talkative woman... she was known to voice strong opinion. We were baffled by her quiet demeanor. At one point, about two thirds of the way through the procession, she abruptly announced that she was waiting for one float in particular and didn't want to miss it. When it finally rolled past following the last troop of dancing Dutch girls, she sprung from her seat and let out a holler, "Miss Asper-gas, how are your tips... are they firm dear?!".

:rofl:

BTW, where is The Retrolounge 'Daily Countdown to Ohio' thread?

:pals:

[RetroLounge]

2. OMG! That is too funny...

Countdown to Ohio - 7 days... :D

RL

[Gonzo Gardener]

3. Seven more days, WOO HOO!!!

Retro, that is a TRUE STORY. I couldn't make up one that good.

Please, pardon the multiple punctuation typos. :blush:

I was up until 5 am wrapping the damn presents. I posted pre-coffee. :hangover:

[RetroLounge]

8. Pre-Coffee?

Say it isn't so!

RL

[BarenakedLady]

4. That was...

entertaining.

:P

[RetroLounge]

7. See you in Ohio?

:shrug:

RL

[xchrom]

5. white asparagus

grows in the dark.

like mushrooms do.

[RetroLounge]

6. Did not know that...

:hi:

RL