This month’s Versed in Florida is with University of South Florida senior Naomi Rosado. She’s studying English, Creative Writing and possibly music. She just transferred to Tampa from FGCU and is originally from the Miami area. In honor of Veterans Day this month’s poem is called Agent Orange. Rosado tells WGCU’s Amy Tardif about her writing technique.
Agent Orange
Cough
Cough
Blisters
Chapped lips
Sear the skin
But I'm hungry in this forest
Orange
Orange
Orange
Covers my skin
Citrus flavor
Burns dry blood
Its juice washes away
Dirt dusty knuckles.
Why are we here?
This question burns me
Like the citrus sphere
Does now
At home we are mocked
Here we are killed
Why are we here?
No one remembers the foot soldier
His sacrifice
The planes
drop a carpet
of orange on our field
No warning
-No
Just a blanket of horror
My skin is orange now
I wonder if I can peel
it
I wonder if it would spray
Citrus smell
Are my muscles layered like
Individually wrapped
Packets of pulp?
Do I hold seeds in my veins?
Cough
Cough
I've never even smoked before
Cough
Blisters burning
Dragon red
Boiling lava
From the volcano
Of my heart
It burns us
We look about each other
In disbelief
No one remembers the foot soldier
A dropped orange
rotted at the base of the tree.
At home
No welcome streamers
Champagne corks popped
Hero songs
No -
Just
Curses
Spits
Baby killers we are called
Cough
I still smell like citrus
At night I hear the planes roar
Blazing overhead
Cheers from us all
We thought we were saved
Instead
I became an orange
If you cut me
I'll bleed orange