Breadfruit Trees
for L.M.M.

I’ll put something on you you’ll not soon forget
flavor of forbidden fruit you’ve never ever tasted
not a bit not a bite of it to be wasted

breadfruit in my neighbour’s yard used to fall to the ground
growing up never knew they were edible

a grown man when a woman made a meal
of breadfruit for me

fruit from our neighbour’s breadfruit tree
always ended on the ground

used to look at them, curious to know what they were
were not for me or anyone I knew to eat

until that woman, that meal of breadfruit she cooked
and served and herself, how I miss these

what she could make of the dust of the earth
of the trash of this world

I’ll put something on you you’ll not soon forget
flavor of forbidden fruit you’ve never ever tasted
not a bit not a bite of it to be wasted


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2009
10:42 p.m. 15.08.09