The Cinnamon Peeler
00:00
The Cinnamon Peeler.
00:03
If I were a cinnamon peeler / I would ride your bed / and leave the yellow bark dust / on your pillow. [Gaps between each individual line and inbetween stanzas throughout the performance. Shorter but noticeable gaps inbetween lines, longer 1 to 2 second gaps inbetween stanzas.]
00:11
Your breasts and shoulders would reek / you could never walk through markets / without the profession of my fingers / floating over you / The blind would / stumble certain of whom they approached / though you might bathe / under rain gutters, monsoon
00:31
Here on the upper thigh / at this smooth pasture / neighbour to your hair / or the crease / that cuts your back. This ankle / You will be known among strangers / as the cinnamon peeler's wife
00:47
I could hardly glance at you / before marriage / never touch you / - your keen nosed mother, your rough brothers, / I buried my hands / in saffron, disguised them / over smoking tar / helped the honey gatherers
01:05
When we swam once / I touched you in water / and our bodies remained free / you could hold me and be blind of smell / You climbed the bank and said. [Tempo speeds up at the end up of this stanza and immediately breaks into the next lines without a gap.]
01:15
This is how you touch other women / the grass cutter's wife, the lime burner's daughter / And you searched your arms / for the missing perfume
01:26
And knew
01:28
What good is it / to be the lime burner's daughter / left with no trace / as if not spoken to in the act of love / as if wounded without the pleasure of a scar
01:45
You touched / your belly to my hands / in the dry air and said / I am the cinnamon peeler's wife. / Smell me.
The Cinnamon Peeler
00:00 - 00:01
The Cinnamon Peeler.
00:03 - 00:11
If I were a cinnamon peeler / I would ride your bed / and leave the yellow bark dust / on your pillow. [Gaps between each individual line and inbetween stanzas throughout the performance. Shorter but noticeable gaps inbetween lines, longer 1 to 2 second gaps inbetween stanzas.]
00:11 - 00:29
Your breasts and shoulders would reek / you could never walk through markets / without the profession of my fingers / floating over you / The blind would / stumble certain of whom they approached / though you might bathe / under rain gutters, monsoon
00:31 - 00:45
Here on the upper thigh / at this smooth pasture / neighbour to your hair / or the crease / that cuts your back. This ankle / You will be known among strangers / as the cinnamon peeler's wife
00:47 - 01:03
I could hardly glance at you / before marriage / never touch you / - your keen nosed mother, your rough brothers, / I buried my hands / in saffron, disguised them / over smoking tar / helped the honey gatherers
01:05 - 01:15
When we swam once / I touched you in water / and our bodies remained free / you could hold me and be blind of smell / You climbed the bank and said. [Tempo speeds up at the end up of this stanza and immediately breaks into the next lines without a gap.]
01:15 - 01:25
This is how you touch other women / the grass cutter's wife, the lime burner's daughter / And you searched your arms / for the missing perfume
01:26 - 01:27
And knew
01:28 - 01:43
What good is it / to be the lime burner's daughter / left with no trace / as if not spoken to in the act of love / as if wounded without the pleasure of a scar
01:45 - 01:54
You touched / your belly to my hands / in the dry air and said / I am the cinnamon peeler's wife. / Smell me.