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| Photo supplied by Poets United |
Kinsman,
when I came to the City of Lights
I chanced
upon something:
Not the
sour milk we ate with ugali
Not the
offals we roasted during Sikukuu
Not the
bone soup we drank
Kinsman,
in the City of Lights
My tongue
tasted something
A thing
you taste and you think,
“Are
these foods of my ancestors?”
I admit
it I hadn’t seen such a thing before
It was
food wrapped in a colourful wrapping
And as I
tore it up, the brown gripped my eyes
It was
like a dark species of boiled sweet potatoes
It hardly
filled my hands
Then I
held it like this
Slowly,
slowly into my tongue
And as my
canine bit it off
The sweet
taste danced in my mouth
Sensually,
erotically
Kinsman,
I closed my eyes
To let me
savour such sweetness
Despite
their insistence, I bit off
The bar,
one canine biteful after another
Soon, the
bar was off
The
wrapping was in my hands
Decorum
aside, I wiped the last traces off
To feel
the last moments of chocolate sensation.
C) Lorot
Salem 2011
Notes:
Ugali- Kiswahili word for an African meal made out of maize or sorghum flour.
Sikukuu- Kiswahili word for ceremony.
From a prompt by Poets United Thursday Think Tank # 50 Chocolate
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11 comments:
Salem, I so enjoyed this poem. Having grown up with chocolate, it was so interesting to me to read of the experience of having chocolate for the FIRST time. I especially like "The sweet taste danced in my mouth."
Thank you so much Mary. Welcome once again. For me, this poem explains much of the true position because I discovered the taste of chocolate late in life.
I so love your discovery of chocolate! I may need to send you some!!!!
Salem, you had me smiling at this one.
Your description of discovering chocolate for the first time & its taste in your mouth is superb!
I can picture you doing this "Then I held it like this
Slowly, slowly into my tongue
And as my canine bit it off...".
Laughing...how many times have we all eaten like this when we're trying something unfamiliar for the first time?
I'm a complete chocoholic, but if I'd never had it before, I would certainly want to try it for myself from the picture you have painted!
Excellent!
how wonderful that you can describe the first taste of chocolate this way. When you talked about the taste in your mouth, it was almost as if things around you were in a slow motion. As your reader, I could picture you eating the chocolate in a slow motion, that's just how moving and brilliantly written your poem. I enjoyed reading it very much.
@ Andy, thank you my brother, err..fellow chocoholic. Mmmh, this chocolate thing!
@ Peacerod, most welcome here. Slow should be the way chocolates should be eaten, or rather licked. Thank you.
amazing entry,
Greetings:
How are you?
Check out our short story slam today,
We love creativity, your contribution is invaulable to us.
Cheers.
Happy Saturday.
xoxox
@ Bluebell Books,thank you so much for stopping by. Bluebell Books will be my latest watering hole. I am glad about this. :) Thank you for the invite.
@ Sherry Blue Sky, like Andy I am also a chocoholic. Now, you should have seen how my tongue rolled at the prospects of me having a chocolate all the way from the West Coast of Canada. :)
I love the memories that arrive, when we remember our encounter with something new~ Well Done
@ Ella, thanks so much for your visit here. Yes, that first encounter is so vivid we can't forget. :)
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