How To Eat a Poem

by Eve Merriam

Don’t be polite.

Bite in.

Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice that

may run down your chin.

It is ready and ripe now, whenever you are.

You do not need a knife or fork or spoon

or plate or napkin or tablecloth.

For there is no core

or stem

or rind

or pit

or seed

or skin

to throw away.

Don’t be polite.

Bite in.

Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice that

may run down your chin.

It is ready and ripe now, whenever you are.

You do not need a knife or fork or spoon

or plate or napkin or tablecloth.

For there is no core

or stem

or rind

or pit

or seed

or skin

to throw away.

If most people can’t live on side dishes, why do they always say that vegetarians can also. We can’t. We’re not rabbits. (Sorry, pet peeve, when I ask a venue if they have vegetarian food, the response is always, yea, we got salad, so you’re good…uh, WHAT? Can you live on salad? Neither can it.) You can’t get rid of something and not replace it with something else. If you’re not going to eat meat, you need another source of protein. This is usually beans. You also need to eat some fat, such as nuts, coconuts, avocados, and seeds. You ate salad and bread. Neither of which is filling. Eat more beans and fat. It’s not an issue of getting used to it. If you’re hungry, and you don’t eat enough, your stomach capacity shrinks. You don’t want this.