Keone 

London, UK

Keone lives in the woods of East London with his cat Ru where he makes, practices and teaches. His published written work includes poems, plays, essays and articles. His play Here After won the performance prize for the inaugural Pint Sized Plays competition in 2008. He is the author of The Parable of His-Story, a queering and querying of the last 5000 year age, which was translated into Korean in 2013. He is completing his first collection of poetry Love Songs for Boys.

Poem completed 17th May 2020

 

There will be mangoes

 

One day

there will be mangoes

ripening out front the shack we got to

just as it was collapsing

back to mud

 

We are laughing so hard

 

that’s what I’ll come to remember

how it felt to meet you

in those lone cold lanes

when the ban was total

as though the sun had been canned

and forgot at the back of that lowest

almost empty shelf

 

And we won’t know how to fix a roof

or need the scurrying to stop

but there’ll be a bucket

and cats

and singing bowls of bees

harmonising the rafters

 

My arms will find yours

and yours will answer

dribbling laughter

fingers slick with sweet mango pulp

that we suck and recall

how to make clean for the other