One man, as alluring as an apple
One man, as exquisite as an asparagus
One man, as bubbly as a grape
One man, as brimming as a watermelon
One man, as boring as a banana
One man, as friendly as a cabbage
One man, as spicy as a radish
One man, as green-eyed as a kiwi
One man, as vulnerable as a peach
One man, as passionate as a tomato
One man, as sly as an eggplant
One man, as green as a cucumber
One man, as locked-up as an apricot
One man, as provocative as a zucchini
One man, as irritable as an onion
One man, as guileless as a pepper
One man, as enticing as a strawberry

Nothing personal, I’m simply hanging out
at the market on the fifth day
of the protein diet.

–Mirela Ivanova
translated from the bulgarian
by Katerina Stoykova-Klemer
from The Season of Delicate Hunger

Mirela Ivanova was born on May 11th, 1962 in Sofia. She holds a degree in Bulgarian philology from Paisii Hilendarski University in Plovdiv. She is the author of seven books of poetry, among which are Stone Wings and Memory for Details. Her poetry has been translated and published in many languages, and a collection of selected poems, Lonely Game, was published in Germany in 2002. Mirela has received a number of Bulgarian literary awards, as well as the 2002 Hermann Lenz Prize for modern poetry from Eastern and Southeastern Europe. She currently lives and works in Sofia.