Kyi May Kaung

Maroon

	Maroon the color:
	Maroon the color of the black sticky rice I use
	with sugar and coconut
	milk
	to make a Portuguese sweet
	dohl dohl
	with almonds -
	a place where Portuguese first set foot and
	left
	descendants
	a little taller a little
	whiter - I have to stir the dough till
	not a drop of moisture is left only oil
	my arm falls off
	the dough is pitch black -
	
	Maroon from all the beatings at
	your hands -
	maroon dead center marooned on the 
	beach
	no bigger than a maroon rice grain
	I should be well centered
	as Queen Anne embroiders those
	umbels - umbrellas of greenish white
	lace - parasols hardly afford much cover
	in the state
	I'm in now - but
	those minute pale green
	stems -
	must all unite
	come together -
	at the 
	dead maroon center.