Food Poems
We Refugees
by Benjamin Zephaniah
I come from a musical place
Where they shoot me for my song
And my brother has been tortured
By my brother in my land.
I come from a beautiful place
Where they hate my shade of skin
They don't like the way I pray
And they ban free poetry.
......
Woodchucks
by Maxine Kumin
Gassing the woodchucks didn't turn out right.
The knockout bomb from the Feed and Grain Exchange
was featured as merciful, quick at the bone
and the case we had against them was airtight,
both exits shoehorned shut with puddingstone,
but they had a sub-sub-basement out of range.
Next morning they turned up again, no worse
for the cyanide than we for our cigarettes
and state-store Scotch, all of us up to scratch.
......
Round And Round
by Vikram Seth
After a long and wretched flight
That stretched from daylight into night,
Where babies wept and tempers shattered
And the plane lurched and whiskey splattered
Over my plastic food, I came
To claim my bags from Baggage Claim
Around, the carousel went around
The anxious travelers sought and found
Their bags, intact or gently battered,
......
Nature Trail
by Benjamin Zephaniah
At the bottom of my garden
There's a hedgehog and a frog
And a lot of creepy-crawlies
Living underneath a log,
There's a baby daddy long legs
And an easy-going snail
And a family of woodlice,
All are on my nature trail.
There are caterpillars waiting
......
The Mystic
by Cale Young Rice
There is a quest that calls me,
In nights when I am lone,
The need to ride where the ways divide
The Known from the Unknown.
I mount what thought is near me
And soon I reach the place,
The tenuous rim where the Seen grows dim
And the Sightless hides its face.
~I have ridden the wind,
......
Food of Life
by Ayatullah Nurjati
I always speak in fact
My mouth is always parsing phenomena
My mouth also always chews the beauty of life
It is part of my life as part of communication with reality
I deliver the entire noumenon down the esophagus to the intestines
The appetizer that I always eat is an ontology assumption that is digested well by my digestion
The main course is epistemological which also always generates energy in continuity in creativity, work and initiative
The dessert is methodology, axiology and rhetoric so that it is very easy to convey throughout the body and cells through my mouth to the pharynx, larynx, large intestine until only feces remain
Food, the Source of Our Delight
by Oscar Auliq-Ice
Food, oh glorious food!
A feast for our senses, so good.
The aroma wafts in the air,
Filling our bellies with care.
A bounty of flavors to explore,
Satisfying our cravings more and more.
From sweet to savory, spicy to mild,
There's a taste for every palate styled.
......
Lemonade Time
by Evelyn Judy Buehler
summer's golden hot
auntie's made cool lemonade
front porch nostalgia
flowers all the day
in mauve orange and yellow
playing in the yard
lemon meringue pie
and sunflowers are nodding
......
A Sunshine Bazaar
by Evelyn Judy Buehler
A lively church bazaar is on the avenue today,
In the house of the Lord, happy children play,
So much is going on, there is so much to see,
Like many hues flowing, in the house of memory.
Hot lunches and baked goods are here for sale,
Like myriad summer days, vivid blossoms prevail,
Old and young enjoy the raffles and the games,
As sunset going down, its vibrant smile retains.
......
Luscious Wine
by Dr. Robert Ippaso
A silken drop nectar refined,
Delicious, smooth, it’s taste sublime,
Worshipped and revered in times of old,
Bacchus it’s God, his hand-maidens bold.
The Romans swilled, the Greeks imbibed,
The British drank, the French prescribed.
The Church just called it Christ’s own blood,
Believers flowed as if by flood.
......
