#coconut
I am white.
Well, I carry Indian blood
And Cape-Malay culture
The taste of biltong in my breath
But I do not know my mother tongue.
No Urdu, no Afrikaans.
And so, I am a foreigner.
Intruding my heritage
Aunts and uncles speak words I cannot understand with pride.
Pronounce every syllable with passion.
And all I can do
Is watch in admiration and envy.
Teach me, I beg.
Feed me your knowledge
Like a chicken to her chicks.
Enlighten me.
All I ever wanted
Was to not be called a coconut
I can eat all the curry in the world
But if I cannot speak my mother tongue
How can I say I am anything but a white girl.
Somebody teach me.
A phrase.
A word.
But they never bother to try.
So I sit alone and cry.
And write in my diary
With English at the tip of my pen.
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 8:52 PM UTC
I never thought I would write
A poem about coconut milk tonight.
But I asked for a suggestion in a cafe
And he told me of it’s nutty and sweet taste
So, I bought it without haste
Couldn’t let my expectations go to waste;
“I’ll make you your usual if you don’t like it”
The barista smiled.
I smiled back.
Small interactions can mean the world.
Coconut milk is significant to me
Because it changed my routine-
My same boring drink
At the same boring time
In the same boring place.
I gave my routine a slap in the face.
Coconut milk is my new favourite.
May 15
May 15, 2026 at 6:55 PM UTC
Gambia is the feeling you get when your mother says, “I love you”
And it smells like a ripe mango
That grew from the tree in your aunties backyard
Gambia tastes sweet like fresh kaba and sugarcane
Gambia is sitting on a sheet
And sharing a plate of Benechin with your family
Keeping the door to the compound open
So the stray cat can come in and out as she pleases
And being sure to save a piece of fish just for her
Gambia is walking across the red dirt road to the cornershop
When you’re craving a cup of warm milk tea
Or a piece of tapalapa bread
To split with your cousins
Gambia is throwing stones at palm trees
And learning how to husk coconuts with your siblings
But being very careful not to cut your fingers with the cleaver
Because the man who picks the coconuts hasn't come in weeks
Gambia is the place you never want to say goodbye to
So you squeeeeeze onto every minute you're there
And pray that you’ll come back to visit
Because Gambia is your home, and it's the feeling you get with your mother says,
“I love you.”
Dec 24, 2025
Dec 24, 2025 at 9:25 PM UTC
Red velvet swirls over a gliding cascade,
black-currant pours warmly into the chilling ganache;
cashews open tenderly into the saffronic crust,
ube curls closer in a honeyed hush.
Cream melts slowly down, crumbling the cone—
a coconut-milky drizzle slipping over parted lips.
Every sense loosens now in its mousse-soft essence,
every nuance dissolving into this luscious, marshmallow melt
Nov 29, 2025
Nov 29, 2025 at 6:53 AM UTC
A mournful wail
But brain makes her a whisper
Your heart, somewhere, feels a distance
As they khuluma
And you can’t
Yet they praat
And you caught a bietjie
May 6, 2022
May 6, 2022 at 4:33 PM UTC
Ain’t a hard, ***** brown shell
(Not a veneer covering that I’m lost)
Ain’t any edible white liquor inside me
(My black roots stops me from being uprooted)
Ain’t just colour for an outer layer
(The proudness that comes with being a god)
Ain’t no coconut, I’m being me
(Without using your stupid stereotype to judge my blackness by)
Feb 18, 2021
Feb 18, 2021 at 3:00 PM UTC
I am
gently munching
fine European chocolate
of a milk-coconut flavour:
I am feeling
the texture of coconut flakes
on my tongue and teeth,
I am tasting
the sweet milky chocolaty flavour
of the brown soft chocolate.
I am
Chocolate-Happy.
Feb 8, 2021
Feb 8, 2021 at 8:40 AM UTC
breeze ripples palm groves,
a gleam in coconut fronds;
past peeps through the mist!
Feb 25, 2019
Feb 25, 2019 at 6:42 AM UTC
A coconut grove,
With one tall wind turbine;
Every wind blows amused!
Jul 30, 2018
Jul 30, 2018 at 9:44 PM UTC
What happens
____ to space______
between us
This is the
human race
Ah, Vey?
Just pray
Overly smitten
But not seeing
clearly picture-prey
He or she runs!!
Little darlings
here comes the sun*
The lime doing the time
Falling trees of coconut
Feeling- overloved
Deviant artist
splat coconut milk
No Security Cat
comfort box
So out of recession
Killer fox______
Chocolatey coconut
Cleanse my mind detox
Almond Joy concession
Rise up Face Botox
He cannot
read you
Haywire always
wired up his words
Hurried Hazelnut
coffee if you mind
Over-sugared
Increased brain
functions bitter rinds
So commercialized
The Cocoa Puffs
Going bananas
monkey ***
Lexie Vamp Vex
Mr. Ed overload
of Oz colors baboon
Going up Air Balloon
So many airheads
The Rainforest
GQ he's gone IQ
((Quarterly Neck of the woods))
Not orderly Outback
Steakhouse
Dinosaurs
******
Vicarious
No shortcut
The nervous system
The fast have a drink
furious
Cracking a coconut
Her Safe______**
6-6-6 combinations
Could crack her
Coconut oil neck her
City Girl call her
Intellectual brain
Singing
Gene Kelly
umbrella
Raining coconuts
(On Overload)
Strawberry Fields
This will be short
Yeah right forever
shortcake, not any sort
The trend of
coconut
Nearer because
of you I am
further
She was the
Brazilian Nut
With her
blind gut
((Coconut Houdini))
Island of Bali
Beauty of Judy
Somewhere so over it
rainbow
King Kong
Hairy chest banging
coconut drink slurping
Of girl talk
Strong New Jersey
Stamina
***** of Venezuela
Overload of
Prima, Donna's
Instant Karma
going to get them
Knocked them off
there feet
Where is my
John Lennon
He has the best beat
May 21, 2018
May 21, 2018 at 6:58 AM UTC
c o c o n u t
the girl is so random
pointing at objects and saying, "coconut"
a different type of crazy
chill and cozy
.
.
.
insert heart emoji
Aug 20, 2017
Aug 20, 2017 at 6:33 AM UTC
coconut trees hold,
tight on to their umbrellas,
wind upsets that plan.
Nov 11, 2017
Nov 11, 2017 at 2:50 PM UTC
coconut coconut,
high up in the tree,
coconut coconut,
a simple reminder to me.
coconut coconut,
can't break through though I try,
coconut coconut,
my favourite 'till I die.
coconut coconut,
why won't you break,
coconut coconut,
it's too much to take,
coconut coconut,
never thought you'd break me,
coconut coconut,
well at least now I'm three
Jun 14, 2017
Jun 14, 2017 at 8:22 AM UTC
the halo sits firmly
above the crown
atop the curls
and scents of jasmine drip
off and from your presence
citrus and coconut
florida with palms
sundays and coffee
my nights and days
belong to these
Feb 21, 2017
Feb 21, 2017 at 2:15 PM UTC
Uncle Sam sometimes whispers a little bit too close.
I’ve felt so many scraps scraping against my cheek-
those numerous numberless things he carries in his
beard by ‘accident’. So many things get stuck there
and I feel them all, whenever he dares, and he dares
often, to whisper alittlebittooclose. One time the grey
beard leaned in and touched me in my sleep and
planted in me strange dreams of faraway gothic towers
passing off as libraries: Harvard dreams, Princeton
dreams, Yale dreams: I haven’t quite slept since. The
shaggy scraps stuck to the forest of strands on his face
would never let me. They scratch away at me often
even in the brightness of day, and claw jaggedly in the
darkness of night. Little heart of mine has lost its own
beat. It beats to the beat of a beat on a beat from a beat
with a beat by a beat which beats those beats and beats
beats that beat not of my beat. Little heart of mine, when
did you lose your own pulse? Why won’t you tell your family
that Uncle Sam’s whispers are more than whispers? Why
won’t you tell your family what Uncle Sam does to you
in the brightness of day when everyone is smiling as Uncle
Sam pats your shoulder? Little heart of mine, why doesn’t
your family know what Uncle Sam does in the darkness
of night as he whispers whispers under your whispers and
what he does beneath your skin? Didn’t you know, little heart?
They have laws that say that greybeards shouldn’t be digging
into little boys’ insides, don’t they.
(Uncle Sam has travelled
far and wide, far and wide to tell me lies.
Recall that this is not the first time…)
But little heart you know why. This is not the first time.
It is the natural progression for a Coconut like you:
darkness of night on outside and brightness of day on inside.
Your skin doesn’t matter; you all taste the same.
Cut you off the homeland-tree and cart you all away.
Then, in this way we can say and say the homeland is “Rising”-
Uncle Sam tells the world of his diversity in selection
of little boys to touch with strange dreams.
And I like the feel of the scraps in his beard. Maybe
I can become one of them. One with them.
Sep 21, 2015
Sep 21, 2015 at 10:58 PM UTC
Sweet sorrows of burning palms,
He loved everything that was wrong.
She washed away his pain with coconut flesh,
And tender kisses of a foul mouth.
Apr 3, 2013
Apr 3, 2013 at 12:27 PM UTC
She’s the girl who you'd always run back to,
You’re the boy I’d always run back to.
She’s the girl who gave you the chills with her beauty,
You give me the chills with yours.
It’s funny how times change,
People you once loved now become strangers.
But- she’s a parasite,
Always latching onto you and taking what she can.
A symptom of a parasite is disturbed sleep,
She disturbs my sleep.
When I close my eyes I see her eyes,
Staring into yours.
One cure for a parasite is coconut oil,
But no oil or remedy will remove her.
The thought of her makes me aggravated,
Intimidated because really I’m giving her what she wants- you.
I’d like to say everything was fine until she came along,
However, she was always there.
We are smooth like foundation,
Then she comes along, our plates collide and the bumps in the road grow.
Now, I’m not one to gamble,
But I bet you’re talking to her right now.
Sorry I mean, I bet she’s talking to you,
Because we both know she can’t get enough.
I know you feel bad for her and I know you love me,
But why do you feel the need to type to x’s and give her promises I’ll make sure you won’t keep.
See, bless her, she’s having trouble moving on,
Clearly she loved you more than you loved her because you turned a page and started writing a new song.
The girl doesn’t threaten me,
I know we make each other feel new.
The only thing that makes me hurt,
Is how you aren’t letting her get over you.
You compliment, flirt and put kisses,
Just so she stays tame.
But to her you compliment, flirt and put kisses,
Because you clearly want her again.
She’s the girl who you'd always run back to,
You’re the boy I’d always run back to.
She’s the girl who gave you the chills with her beauty,
You give me the chills with yours.
One cure for a parasite is coconut oil,
You know her a lot better than me.
Maybe she’s allergic to coconuts…
Maybe.
Jun 19, 2015
Jun 19, 2015 at 4:27 AM UTC
Lonely
I'm burning under your skin
I'm drowning in a tide of your blood
I love you with my fingers, with my teeth,
With coral hollows of my neck,
And
You don't even know it.
Maybe you don't need to know
That I'm eating you
Like unwashed strawberries.
Quietly, I'm spreading you
Over my lips,
I'm melting you on my taste buds,
I feel you gliding down my throat,
And ruling down my bowel,
You are twitching of surprise with
My every bite.
Covered with coconut flour
You are resting on my thighs,
You do not read my mind because for that
It takes more than a touch
Something decorated with Baroque epithets,
Hidden in the meadow with dandelions,
Something that is not ours and should not ever be spoken.
I drink you like wine left in the sun,
I sleep in the corners of your moves,
And
You don't even know it.
Maybe you don't need to know.
Jun 3, 2015
Jun 3, 2015 at 4:17 PM UTC
I can feel your heart beat under my palm
my mind finally goes calm
while you fall asleep
under my wings
things that were previously done
don't need to be spoken of
I can almost taste that skin of yours
so fair
I can smell the coconut air
I can choke on your hair in the night
and I'd be alright with this
I could take it around my fist just the same
play a game
or just lay here and sing your name.
Wrestling the invisible line that separates our flesh
wanting more but nothing less
I couldn't wait for that moment when it came
you
me
a fluid wreck
a liquid so sweet
don't say thank you
nor apologize
I'm so amazed, lover, to be with you
to be alive.
Apr 30, 2015
Apr 30, 2015 at 4:39 AM UTC
Blown out
**** filled ashtray,
bedsheets without
her coconut scent.
Mar 28, 2015
Mar 28, 2015 at 4:08 AM UTC