mangoes of caracas

Christina Hoag is a reporter with The Associated Press is Los Angeles where she covers all manners of angelic mayhem and mishap. Her life's journey also includes seven years of mango seasons in Caracas, Venezuela. Her fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry have been published in more than 25 literary reviews.

mangoes of caracas
By Christina Hoag

the cloying perfume

of rotting mangoes

littered on the ground

curdles the air

like overbeaten butter


it fills my pores


i watch my husband

my small son

pick through the guttered fruit

to find those

with skin intact


burdened with the weight

of responsibility

i am like the ripe mango

drop

ping

landing so hard

it sp lit


i kick the mangoes

maggots spew forth

i crush them underfoot


cool gusts

sneeze on my clammy cleavage

the daily rain

slices the air clean

thunders the corrugated iron roofs

drowns presence of thought

i am grateful

i pick up a mango

bite it spit it chew it drool it

waiting for the sky to purple

into sundown


Posted by Annmarie at 2/6/2011 11:54 PM
Categories: words to linger on
Tags: Christina Hoag Caracas mangoes rain need hopeless
 

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