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
- Ольга Седакова – Элегия осенней воды
- Why England Is Conservative poem – Alfred Austin
- The Huntsmen by Walter de la Mare
- The Stwonen Bwoy Upon The Pillar by William Barnes
- Robert Burns: M’Pherson’s Farewell:
- Empowering Women in Gambia
- To A Young Lady Who Had Been Reproached For Taking Long Walks In The Country by William Wordsworth
- My Spouse Nancy by Robert Burns
- Sonnet On Sitting Down To Read King Lear Once Again poem – John Keats poems
- Владимир Маяковский – Частушки (Милкой мне в подарок бурка…)
- Нина Воронель – Меня пугает власть моя над миром
- Start Growing by Rixa White
- Вера Полозкова – И пока он вскакивает с кровати
- Зинаида Александрова – Карманный фонарик
- The Golden Year! poem – Alfred Austin
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.