Nomad Online

Mangoes are sweetest when they are soft

When they drip juice through your fingers

And soak your mouth in summer bursts

They are sunshine and swimming pools

Childhood summers spent with grandparents in the tropics

A treat after that chicken rice dinner unwrapped from banana leaves

I fought for the seed as a child. Not satisfied with its fleshy cheeks

I needed to sink my teeth into the softness and tear it from the hard centre

My hands sticky and oozing

A mangle of sweet joy

Dripping down my chin to the plastic kitchen table cloth below

Somewhere between wild abandon and adulthood

I found myself eating mangoes differently

The shift came quietly

They were too heat-y as some friends said

Too prone to mess and inconvenience

Its sweetness came with the understanding that once stained they could leave their mark

I try to eat them carefully these days

Because with understanding comes fear-laced worry

But mangoes are still sweetest when they are soft

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This is my first official poem for Nomad Online.

I was inspired by Sarah Kay’s Ted Talk and decided to give it a go.

Here’s to trying new things in the new year and enjoying without fear the mangoes life gives us.

Not long now, but happy new year everyone!