I have no idea if I'll make it through this year's NaPoWriMo or not, given last year's utter failure to do so thanks to Covid. But I'll give it a shot since I promised my amazing friend Gloria that I would try! I am so rusty though. This...is not the greatest anything; I cringe reading it, but it's a start?
Prompt: Take a look through Public Domain Review’s article on “The Art of Book Covers.” Some of the featured covers are beautiful. Some are distressing. Some are just plain weird (I’m looking at you, “Mr Sweet Potatoes”). With any luck, one or more of these will catch your fancy, and open your mind to some poetic insights.
A TREATISE ON THE ADULTERATION OF FOOD AND CULINARY POISONS
From Merriam-Webster's dictionary:
Adulterate: adul· ter· ate / ə-ˈdəl-tə-ˌrāt
Transitive verb: To corrupt, debase, or make impure by the addition
of a foreign or inferior substance or element
Especially: to prepare for sale by replacing more valuable
with less valuable or inert ingredients
A drop here. A drop there.
A word here. A word there.
Summer-swinging pink-ribbon girl, now adult
Feeding on food laced with arsenic words. She's a humming bird
Drawing poisoned nectar from flowers
Planted in toxic soil. She's vintage brandy
Adulterated with cheap-liquor lies drop by drop
Until she believes she is water.
(Adulterate: To corrupt, debase, or make impure by the addition
of a foreign or inferior substance or element)
Adulterate: adul· ter· ate / ə-ˈdəl-tə-ˌrāt
Transitive verb: To corrupt, debase, or make impure by the addition
of a foreign or inferior substance or element
Especially: to prepare for sale by replacing more valuable
with less valuable or inert ingredients
A drop here. A drop there.
A word here. A word there.
Summer-swinging pink-ribbon girl, now adult
Feeding on food laced with arsenic words. She's a humming bird
Drawing poisoned nectar from flowers
Planted in toxic soil. She's vintage brandy
Adulterated with cheap-liquor lies drop by drop
Until she believes she is water.
(Adulterate: To corrupt, debase, or make impure by the addition
of a foreign or inferior substance or element)
She looks in the mirror with no fight left
Survival instincts forced dormant.
A steady diet of gaslighting and toxic words
Keeps her believing she's an inferior element
The adulterated adult, damaged goods
A corrupted, debased, impure failure.
(Adulterate, also: to prepare for sale by replacing more valuable
with less valuable or inert ingredients)
The art of culinary poison isn't hard.
All it takes is the right food, the right time
A drop here. A drop there.
A word here. A word there
A word here. A word there
2 comments:
A warm welcome back, Shuku. How lovely you joined today. Sadly, I think we all are adulterated in one way or another. I read it like a song with the refrains. Thank you for the revelations.
OH! Shuku! This speaks to me. It goes straight to my gut (no pun intended) and to my heart. Simply beautiful.
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