Body Orchard

Body Orchard
Sandeep Kumar Mishra

I taste these pears and peaches with my whole body,
as graceful as the first floret of springtime in a garden,
We watched for the first time a tropic moon
descend pine-orange into our yard,
I kissed your raspberry cheek and tasted
inviting mango juice on unbound rosy lips

“Sangam” of red roses and white lilies flow in
East-Asian almond cool aquamarine eyes,
A sharp nose pyramid, a moon ring shine,
Long Thailandish slender neck and
Brazilian bloom-down-cheek’d peaches,
in your diamond apple body orchard
shaded under Indian long silky spirited locks.

The plum tree in your garden is now
bursting into flower with the promise that
snowy flower buds give birth to ripe lilac plums
this autumn when you turn sweet sixteen

Garden fig is a glittering moist four-petalled flower,
After I strip off the blossom with my lips,
heavy with dotted green and red fruit,
marking each interlude with musical drops.

The blackberries would ripen—a purple-green,
Like a bottle of old wine, its pulp was sugary,
sun’s blood in it leaving good stains upon the
tongue and desire for more pickings.

I have wild free-born cranberries, but
my garden doesn’t have the forbidden fruit.
For the true are cherry red and golden mango,
I have memories of yellow daffodils and oranges
blended with the burn of colorless lemon tears,
basked in honey rays, dreamed in pomegranate
sunsets of lime hills and dulce roses
Years of sweet citrus lived in golden hours.

My yellow heart pining for red fusion,
to shake the fruit that never falls,
I am alone without the temptation of apple,
Limbs entwined in a sweet embrace
I kissed season’s hot tangerine lips.

The colors of my country are spread here
with clear blue sky, sun, breeze, dew and peace,
I can see big juicy melon being sliced up
and divided between a bunch of shiny kids;
Fruit is for sharing, with friends, family and
Neighbors, even if your neighbors are bears or cows

I would not live to see the leaves fall yet:
A moment of delight in the shared fruit would live on
I am not inclined to romanticize my toils in the orchard,
as the aches and pains of this grove are mine only.

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Sandeep Kumar Mishra is a bestseller author of “One Heart- Many Breaks-2020”. He is the poetry editor at Indian Poetry Review. He has received “Readers Favourite Award-21”, “Indian Achievers Award-21”, IPR Poetry Award-2020, and Literary Titan Book Award-2020. He was shortlisted for “International Book Awards-2021”, “Indies Today Book Award 2020” and “Joy Boone Poetry Prize 2021” and “Oprelle Poetry Prize- 2021”.