The Cinnamon Peeler
by Michael Ondaatje
If I were a cinnamon peeler
I would ride your bed
And leave the yellow bark dust
On your pillow.
Your breasts and shoulders would reek
You could never walk through markets
without the profession of my fingers
floating over you. The blind would
stumble certain of whom they approached
though you might bathe
under rain gutters, monsoon.
Here on the upper thigh
at this smooth pasture
neighbour to you hair
or the crease
that cuts your back. This ankle.
You will be known among strangers
as the cinnamon peeler’s wife.
I could hardly glance at you
before marriage
never touch you
–your keen nosed mother, your rough brothers.
I buried my hands
in saffron, disguised them
over smoking tar,
helped the honey gatherers…
When we swam once
I touched you in the water
and our bodies remained free,
you could hold me and be blind of smell.
you climbed the bank and said
this is how you touch other women
the grass cutter’s wife, the lime burner’s daughter.
And you searched your arms
for the missing perfume
and knew
what good is it
to be the lime burner’s daughter
left with no trace
as if not spoken to in the act of love
as if wounded without the pleasure of a scar.
You touched
your belly to my hands
in the dry air and said
I am the cinnamon
Peeler’s wife. Smell me.
End of the poem
15 random poems
- Юнна Мориц – Зимнее
- Вера Полозкова – Детство
- In Imitation of Cowley : The Garden poem – Alexander Pope
- Love’s Fitfulness poem – Alfred Austin
- Robert Burns: Where Are The Joys I have Met?:
- Full Moon and Little Frieda by Ted Hughes
- Алишер Навои – Эти губы точно розы
- Борис Заходер – Про пана Трулялинского
- Николай Гумилев – Мадагаскар
- Ольга Седакова – Вечерняя песня
- Creative Branding Solutions – So Why Do I Need a Logo?
- “O you, far colder, whiter” by Torquato Tasso
- Lyonnesse by Sylvia Plath
- Staffa poem – John Keats poems
- Robert Burns: Caledonia -A Ballad :
Some external links:
Duckduckgo.com – the alternative in the US
Quant.com – a search engine from France, and also an alternative, at least for Europe
Yandex – the Russian search engine (it’s probably the best search engine for image searches).
Michael Ondaatje (b. 1943) is a renowned Canadian author and poet. He is best known for his novel “The English Patient,” which won the Booker Prize and was later adapted into an Academy Award-winning film. Ondaatje’s works often explore themes of identity, memory, and the impact of war. He has received numerous accolades for his contributions to literature and is considered a significant figure in contemporary Canadian literature.