Exotic Appetites


Pollen gilds my lips.
Turmeric-stained fingers

Wrap and unwrap
An obscenely pink banana blossom.

Strangely salted rain
Drums against my brow.

Eat like locals, with hands,
Dipping balls of rice

Into mango chutney.
Smokey and lewdly spiced

Singapore scents cling.
I die to suffocate.

Voracious.
Insatiable.

Fish bone
Sticks in the throat.

An incendiary flash of urchin
Innards coaxed onto the tongue.

Gruel, for the finish,
Bathed in bitter lime.

© June 17, 2003 John Goss