NEIL LEADBEATER

(This feature is part of TRUCK’s Theme Issue on the List or Catalog Poem. You can go HERE for an Index of the Participating Poets.)

Mexican Limes

              Beyond the window

                                      these limes:

                        

              the many slender, spreading branches and sharp axillary spines.

              Close up, their long, leathery, evergreen leaves dream of Himalayan                                   valleys;

              are light-purplish when young.

              Spanish gives them the limelight—

              a long run for their money with many different names:

              lima cida, lima chica, lima boba, limn chiquito, limn criollo,

              limn sutil, limn corriente and limn agria.

              They are a far cry from the single word: baladi in Egypt

              and in Morocco, doc.

________

(from The Loveliest Vein of our Lives (Poetry Space Ltd., Bristol, U.K., 2014)