Sunday, 8 January 2012

Day 8: Beef Burgers, a poem by Adam White, poet

To make them right,
You crush the crackers to dust,
Add a nice, hot mustard,
Some diced onion,
And then the meat
(The best ground beef you can find.)
Squeeze the contents together.
Add an egg for binding and,
With wet hands,
Form the mixture in to perfect little balls...

What shape would you have me?
You brought me in with smashed sight,
Burned my naivety away,
Left only blood and tears to drink.
You blended my heart
(Your cancerous blessings,)
And made such a thing,
You recoiled as you opened
Those crimson hands.
What else did you expect me to be?

If you exist, answer me.
I watch through steaming glass
As flattened patties brown.
Toast the bread and cut the cheese.
The blade is quite sharp
(But it won't open skin.)
Sauce of choice? Ketchup.
I tell myself I'm fine.
Add salad as a side.
Must stay healthy. Must live on.

15 comments:

  1. ugh....first i thought i'm on jamie oliver's site...smiles...and then it suddenly changed direction...tough..

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  2. nice shift in direction adam...blood and tears to drink...vivid...have fun at OLN...

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  3. haha I echo the above - a shift indeed, I was reading thinking hmm then bang "What shape would you have me?" - and I liked it all the more for it - nice work! OT

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  4. GREAT... im hungry now.. very hungry... ah, anyways clever write LumberJack!

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  5. Burned my naivety away,
    Left only blood and tears to drink.....
    strong and a nice write!

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  6. Mixed metaphors? Cannibal recipe? Doesn't matter, it's great either way. Quietly ballsy. Thanks - Moskowitz

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  7. Like how you flipped it around a bit, your food bit is surely a hit.

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  8. Nice shift - put me in mind of cannibalism

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  9. I've read this piece several times and I get a different slant on it each time--like you've shifted the light source on me. I like that. Terrific peace, Adam.

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  10. Adam...this is a sneaky little weave as mentioned above...my stomach is rumbling and my heart is breaking! You must live on indeed...the world is in desperate need of your words! I had to go with interesting AND awesome on this one!

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  11. I like it. I thought the twist worked beautifully. Liked the sound of the recipe, too.

    http://charleslmashburn.wordpress.com/2012/01/10/the-sun-came-up-again-4/

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  12. at times we feel like our heart and bones are being crushed and molded and then left to burn in neglect..
    nice twist to this poem..
    lynne

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  13. "You recoiled as you opened
    Those crimson hands.
    What else did you expect me to be?"

    Pretty strong words.
    I love how this switches from recipe to person to recipe again, but all reference to a kind of bloody rawness. Excellent piece!

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  14. So clever..at first I thought I had stumbled upon a chef's page...it appears it is a recipe...a recipe of pain

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  15. It made me think of a poem I once wrote... I knew from the very beginning that this metaphor was going somewhere.

    really enjoyed this one and the emotions and thoughts that came with it for me

    ~L

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