{"id":2401,"date":"2017-01-05T12:00:11","date_gmt":"2017-01-05T11:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/?p=2401"},"modified":"2016-12-06T11:11:51","modified_gmt":"2016-12-06T10:11:51","slug":"ncla-new-writing-the-shaddock-and-other-poems-by-antonia-cundy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/?p=2401","title":{"rendered":"NCLA New Writing: &#8216;The Shaddock&#8217; and other poems by Antonia Cundy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The Shaddock<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Pomelo; plump pulp bunched at branches\u2019 bottom,<br \/>\nPulling hard on thick limbs<br \/>\nAgainst the hulked leg rising six metres to the sky.<br \/>\nThe swell of moist beads inside a wax case,<br \/>\nDemanding all energy to breed unpredictable bulbs.<br \/>\nWhite flowers mislead the hungry warrior,<br \/>\nDeceitful innocent flags to food<br \/>\nSeduce the weary wanderer<br \/>\nWith a waxen green umbrella of shade<br \/>\nA cool break in the sweet-scented shadow of the wave-white belled petals.<br \/>\nWhat strength sucked from the soil<br \/>\nTo rise twenty inches,<br \/>\nEach sun-setting season<br \/>\nExpand the shaded sanctuary<br \/>\nAnd bear the bulbous load of pummelo.<\/p>\n<p>Pummelo; two in thirty-two \u2013<br \/>\nA bitterly sad chance of success,<br \/>\nOr sweet survival.<br \/>\nA bite of one, of two, of thirty-two;<br \/>\nA luck eight times more exotic<br \/>\nThan the four-leafed clover.<br \/>\nThe other thirty?<br \/>\nThirty more orange\u2019s Adams,<br \/>\nThirty pommelos.<\/p>\n<p>Pommelos we cannot predict<br \/>\nBitter, sweet, taste roulette.<br \/>\nEight times more exotic<br \/>\nFor eight years to fruit,<br \/>\nTo taste underneath green-yellow rind.<br \/>\nTo decide;<br \/>\nDiscard, or salted pamplemousse?<\/p>\n<p>Pamplemousse, so purposeless in reproduction<br \/>\nCandied rind, raw flesh,<br \/>\nDipped in Brazil\u2019s dark cocoa.<br \/>\nOr forgone, Eve\u2019s apple, the elixir<br \/>\nOf forbidden Fruit\u2019s shackles.<\/p>\n<p>The shaddock.<br \/>\nHere, true magical shaman seeds,<br \/>\nPlucked from branches<br \/>\nSliced in segments<br \/>\nInebriate the senses<br \/>\nThe uncertainty of thirty-two<br \/>\nLaced into liqueur.<\/p>\n<p>Adam to the orange,<br \/>\nThe shaddock.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Milkman<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A skin had formed over her hot chocolate,<br \/>\nCreasing clinging off her spoon \u2013<br \/>\nHer grandmother\u2019s bingo wings.<br \/>\n\u201cI couldn\u2019t get a regular rhythm,\u201d<br \/>\nHe had said.<br \/>\nSurely the milk could not be off?<br \/>\nShe\u2019d only bought it yesterday,<br \/>\nFrom the kind man whose hands<br \/>\nShe imagined soft as clotted cream,<br \/>\nPooling pennies in the lap of her fiver.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Independencia<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>What virulent youth sprayed that there?<br \/>\nViolent in his thoughts,<br \/>\nFlagrantly tattooing the brick \u2013<br \/>\nA vagrant, a vandal.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Antonia Cundy<\/strong> is a third year English Literature student at Newcastle University. Her creative work, reviews and articles have been published in Prospect Magazine, Alliterati Magazine, Cuckoo Review, and others. She is currently working on a prose piece based around Newcastle\u2019s Ouseburn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Shaddock Pomelo; plump pulp bunched at branches\u2019 bottom, Pulling hard on thick limbs Against the hulked leg rising six metres to the sky. The&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[427,503,351],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2401"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2401"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2402,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2401\/revisions\/2402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}