Gangster yellow cadillac on the tongueeats, shoots first and leavesasks no questions with tantalising aloof fibreand a heart of stone
Double-crossing outshelfer tovarieties like the character-driven chausaor langra the lame, or totapuri a luring favouritewith your licheeing uncle
Dance-off with belle moll mankurada tail, a twist, a quercetin tarantellaglorious basterd son of a sunrayslaying with honeybunny good skinand hardboiled looks of thrillophilia chrome
Bred in the wild wild tropicanasoutcropper from fecund alleys of hortigunculturistsHit the road jackfruit and don’t call mepumpkin he says spitting nectar on the Konkan
Strolling into bazaar wars a reservoir godoverseeing dealers swearing in price profanitiesto saree-cut lasses and macheted fruitivoreshardened coldpress pimps looking to snort gold
He tickles the subconscious afternoon heatwith wafting fingers tattooed in intoxicantsstalking out chutneymaking desperadoesleaving a wake of guerillas sliced and diceda carnage of peels, grenades of sweet coreglittery gore and a good-bad-hungry whistle in the wind.
***
Notes
Chausa, langra, mankurad, totapuri are local mango varieties in subcontinental India.
The Alphonso mango was created by Portuguese colonialists in Estado da India as a cross-breed variety. Today there are usually two camps – one that declares it is the king of all fruits and the other that pooh-poohs it, preferring other local varieties instead.
Summer months in India mean a ripe harvest of mangoes and every Indian summer’s reason to have a #mangowar on Twitter about which variety is the best
Read more on India’s affair with Mangoes, here and here.
Photo by HOTCHICKSING on Unsplash