Ma. Flora Nina R.

Rey Lit 14 R50 Sampaloc Candy

There is an ant bite on your candy And it will make your tongue throb, and your eyes pop open and moisten, And your teeth clamp shut, To cage the enraged tongue that wants to escape; the discomfort of an ant bite. That is what my mother said when I first tasted the candy. My brother said; it was a bubble of methane gas, rising from the inside, the outside, the sideways, from the pores and cracks and underflaps of the mouth & throat. Everywhere, the spicy, sweet and sour.... Maybe it is a whole new flavor! Like a fart! He says. Like a BIG smelly fart lounging inside your mouth. And he lets one out himself. It is like sandpaper, my sister said. It grazes the tongue, and chafes it. But the friction is intense and ELECTRIC and it goes Zap! Zap! to my brain. But sandpaper grows dull, And the candy melts in her mouth as she giggles at something her boyfriend texted. So I ask my grandfather, what he thought it tasted like. And he chewed thoughtfully, It is my life and and of countless others lucky people maybe yours too if you're also luckyit is a time machine, or a pensieve like in Harry Potter. And I quote him because he seems wise; Because you only quote wise things wise people say. It reminds me... And he chewed, It is my first fall off a coconut tree,

it is how my dog runs through the thick grass. It is my bully's face when I landed a punch on his nose; it is the Sunday dinner my mom makes. It is how my house looks after a whole day of helping harvest sugarcane in the fields, it is the look on my dad's face when I told him I hated him. It is the first Indiana Jones movie I ever watched, It is the childhood friend I had (who I still think about) and how he would willingly play sergeant to my captain. It is the smug smile I had after my first kiss; the taste of beer after my first heartbreak. It is the way your grandmother's eyes soften, it is the way she looked when she died. And he paused. And chewed, It is sharing this candy with you.