there is the shape,
seeds lodged between teeth
…except the faded red,
juice tasting like the sweat of migrants
you are a play on memory:
an almost strict likeness,
because kept is the scent of reality
you are too big to be real
sliced still,
after the exorcism-
you leak dressed out presented to the children-
lively eaters…
they don’t know my complicity
you’re all they’ve ever known
(copyright 2008 ) c A Hughes
06.13.08
Oh my God! Giant fresh strawberries. How I would love some right now with my Ma’s homemade little strawberry shortcake cakes. I get fat, just thinking about it.
Annie
i love my mom’s shortcakes but haven’t had them for a long time.
i had some dole strawberries today and they were pretty sweet.
And we all need a treat sometimes.
i just am sorry that it has come to molecular tampering-
unless one wants to mortgage their home for organic and natural berries…
i should plant some for my neighbor cats to shit on.
Here’s to strawberries!
~c
It’s strawberry season on Cape Cod and up and down the road near my house everyone is out selling freshly picked strawberries. These are the real ones, no migrant sweat. My favorite fruit which I won’t buy in the grocery store in the winter because they don’t look real. Great writing and so true.
Exactly.
It reminds me of the book Nature’s End in which food is engineered completely with man-made material and sprinkled with a drug called ’satisfaction’. So though it looks like a carrot, and the eater is drugged into being satisfied with its taste, it’s nothing but a bunch of lord-knows-what.
And i only mention migrant workers because now, they work California’s strawberry fields. Then they work north (here in Oregon) for pears before moving on to Washington for apples. The thing is they are paid low wages for very hard work in high heat (in the summer, anyway) to pick these chemically and molecularly altered foods that i don’t appreciate, but will buy because it’s easy.
Thank you for reading and commenting. With both my pregnecies i craved strawberries like mad. i mean, i could, and did, eat quarts and quarts of them. And cherries. Mmm… cherries…
~c
I am fortunate that my daughter pays for our food and will only let me buy organic food. We don’t have any chemicals in the house including our cleaning products and our bath and bodycare products. But because we don’t eat any processed foods we save money there and in the end spend about $150 a week to feed four adults. Not bad really. That comes out to about $5.35 a day per person.
We also avoid processed foods, especially since i love to cook. Like cook cook. i admit though, i am quite fond of bleach for cleaning and use it almost everyday.
i grew up eating wheat germ on oat meal so i really try to cook just as healthy for my family.
It feels good to eat right. But organic produce is pricey. i get it when i can.
Your daughter sounds very health and environmentally conscious. Good for you guys, parcticing all that goodness.
~c
Mmmm…strawberries. I can remember picking them with my Mom when I was younger, sneaking a bite and the juice running down my chin.
My Grandma Mary (who wasn’t really my grandmother but my paternal great-aunt) had a large strawberry patch and i would just go wild in it. i’d even eat the greenish ones.
Yesterday, my friend’s son shoved one strawberry after another into his little mouth. He was sticky with juice. So funny.
~c