trout

Making Siapo: 3. Scraping the bast

Cherie Barford

I've mistaken the pouring of water
over a sloping board
for a wash day

then realised the board
accommodated strips of bast
and siapo was in the making

sometimes an old canoe suffices

it is an inclined surface that is required
running water
and something sharp
shells or bamboo or a knife

that can scrape away
remnants of the coarse outer bark
that eluded the bast peeling

clung stubbornly to its soft inner flesh