the naturalist by Micah Cavaleri

(for Anne Gorrick)

I have finally come around

to write this book
of yellow and red illustrations
of green palms
only centuries late

How have I forgotten what I discovered

on a ship as if I was on a ship I forgot

Fried (green) plantains taste like (yellow) honey
although I did not
sit down to write
a cook book. These
illustrations are
illuminations of
a voyage I never
expected to make
until I saw the boards
of the hull. Now
I am lost at sea.


Micah Cavaleri, USA