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August 31, 2024

Vendor of Green Coconuts

Muna Lee

Day after day, barelegged in the plaza,
He squats by his coconuts, a jade-green mound,
Hacking the husks with a gleaming machete,
Tossing jade and ivory chips to the ground.

Youth has slipped by him—he has not missed it.
With monotonous gesture and eyes half asleep,
He is only aware of the shining fragments,
And nuts piling up in a shaggy brown heap.

A world has been gutted by fire and disaster,
Nations wasted to ashes, the while he has been
Year after year, hacking and chopping
Dusky nuts from their sheaths of ivory and green.

This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on August 31, 2024, by the Academy of American Poets.

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“Vendor of Green Coconuts” appeared in Muna Lee’s poetry collection Sea-Change (The Macmillan Company, 1923).

Muna Lee was an American poet, writer, translator, and political activist. A long-term resident of Puerto Rico, she worked in cultural affairs for the United States State Department. She authored one book of poetry, Sea-Change (The Macmillan Company, 1923). Lee died on April 3, 1965.

Sea-Change
(The Macmillan Company, 1923)

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Thanks to Danez Smith, author of Bluff (Graywolf Press, 2024), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month’s weekdays. Read or listen to a Q&A about Smith’s curatorial approach and find out more about our Guest Editors for the year.

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Poem-a-Day - "Vendor of Green Coconuts" by Muna Lee

Vendor of Green Coconuts

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