Yellow Cucumber
(from Kahwa Kahee)

No Hiuen Tsang yet articulately
Word-snapping cornucopian India
Was chaplain Edward Terry…
Who noted in English first, Sufiana
Coffee and other gustatory novelties.

To my Chiquita, Dole and Del Monte fed  mind,
Page after page of his 17th century archive,
Appears to peel off paint layers
From the colonial ‘masterpiece’ of image
That’s left behind.

Among produce ‘most pleasing unto the palate’
Edward discovers, is a fruit
That grows in slender clusters…
Yellow when ripe, is shaped like cucumbers,
Which Englishmen in the country stationed
Refer to as ‘planten’.

Tearing up when next
I pick up the fruit…
Asking through salty streaks how it left
Shores Indian to become a firangi banana,
I see it curve into the sweetest
Yet poignant smile
That I swallow it not a long while.

As I do, it becomes clear
That the journeys of the brother,
Across waters and among plantation laborers,
Would fill the heart to hear.
So picking up another fella,
I beseech, ‘Tell me all, dear kela!’

– Bolbul