no lentil soup to be had tonight
instead spicy taco soup, meatless luckily
most nights here they serve
chicken and sausage gumbo
or chicken noodle soup
and various forms
of white goop
such is the lot of vegetarians
and the lot of vegans
is craggier by far
it's preparing yourself for the fact
that there's probably nothing prepared, for you
and feeling extremely grateful when there is
but even then, it's probably only one dish
so you go overboard
and appear to be greedy
because you're gobbling it all up
taking two bowls instead of one
to prevent an almost certain second trip
it's becoming a scavenger
in the wilderness that is american cuisine
its walking down the grocery aisles
and getting embarrassingly excited
when you find something that doesn't
read: 'with chicken' or rather 'with beef'
it's being that character
who lingers on the frozen foods aisle
for extended periods of time
considering steamed potato options
and filling their cart to the roof
with green giant valley fresh steamers
it's realizing you are the archetypal oddling,
the aberrant one out of the bushel
especially if you live in the south
uber-especially if you're afro-american
and your family is green, to all but soul food
which frankly, should be renamed as:
'how to drain the soul out of food'
the soul, being the nutrients and vitamins,
the entire purpose of eating vegetables
to my family, if your red beans and rice
contains whole beans, that are veritably
recognizable as a member of the legume family
and not the red mushy substance family,
then you're obviously doing it wrong
and they'll agree unanimously, you're a bad cook
of the absolute worst caliber
such dedication is admirable,
to say the least
to my family, if you cook a dish
of exceptionally high culinary rank
with meat that screams 'look for me! '
their appetites will shout in unison
despite your betokenings of its expense
in my family, needless to say
they think I'm from some distant star,
that I could possibly be adopted
decidedly, the blacker sheep
amongst black sheep even
After the extensive coaching of Bri on etymology of words and their connotations, what more should I write Nika? I enjoyed the poem altogether.... It is interesting to note that you are a veg... and an 'oddling'... (a new word for me, as Bri has said) i t's being that character who lingers on the frozen foods aisle for extended periods of time considering steamed potato options and filling their cart to the roof with green giant valley fresh steamers This stanza I liked most, especially the line...'filling the cart to the roof'! An interesting read!
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
I really relished this poem on two levels. One... I lived with a Jamaican family in my teens and you took me back there to the dutchie pan boiling furiously and the rice and beans. Kidney. Which changed the colour a bit and made the rice quirkily pretty. Jonnie cakes fizzing So many memories I won't bore you. I loved the way we all found it hard not to peek in the lid. Second attraction although I'm pranging a bit. I was a veggie for four years til a year ago. I gave up although I hated too I was I'll and spotty. I could never afford the nutritional generous foods. I was always bottom of the food chain and by the end of it. Mushrooms were my nemesis. It's not my only time. And I know full well I shall go back to it. But at the moment in just getting by. Bravo to you for your write your stance and your food awareness. Ty