Weekend "Poem In Your Post" Blog Hop

You Can't Write A Poem About McDonalds

Noon. Hunger the only thing
singing in my belly.
I walk through the blossoming cherry trees
on the library mall,
past the young couples coupling,
by the crazy fanatic
screaming doom and salvation
at a sensation-hungry crowd,
to the Lake Street McDonald's.
It is crowded, the lines long and sluggish.
I wait in the greasy air.
All around me people are eating—
the sizzle of conversation,
the salty odor of sweat,
the warm flesh pressing out of
hip huggers and halter tops.
When I finally reach the cash register,
the counter girl is crisp as a pickle,
her fingers thin as french fries,
her face brown as a bun.
Suddenly I understand cannibalism.
As I reach for her,
she breaks into pieces
wrapped neat and packaged for take-out.
I'm thinking, how amazing it is
to live in this country, how easy
it is to be filled.
We leave together, her warm aroma

close at my side.
I walk back through the cherry trees
blossoming up into pies,
the young couples frying in
the hot, oily sun,
the crowd eating up the fanatic,
singing, my ear, eye, and tongue
fat with the wonder
of this hungry world.  
                 
                            - Ronald Wallace

What else can't you write a poem about?  Brainstorm a list.  Then write a few poems... :-)

If you're just joining us for the first time, you can post a poem about anything at all (yours or someone else's) then link your post back to this one so those who visit your blog can find us and in turn visit the poem-rich bloggers contributing here.   (Just like any other meme, really.)

Stuck for a focus?  How about posting a poem on an unlikely topic?  One of my favorites is Mary Oliver's poem about a toad.  And then there's the Wallace one above.  And the one I wrote about hobo spiders that works pretty well, if I do say so myself.  So, you get the picture...



As always, please support the poets who change us - and our perception of our world - with their art.

MFB,
L

p.s.  For more information about Ronald Wallace and for more of his poems, try: http://mendota.english.wisc.edu/~WALLACE/poems.html#top