Delibes for the ears, and the taste buds to savour:
Food from far off Asia, prepared in the way
We multi-task time-savers never obey
Orient calling in one stretch of town
Under the smoke clouds of caramel brown
Lights, shouts and beckoning, should I bring myself near?
Not speaking the language yet the message quite clear
The smoke and the powders both making me sneezy
Old men playing Pipas, girls on the Dizi
The lanterns and lights, and dragons displayed
Music delightful as the colours cascade
The sound of crackling and sizzling took over
Fattened up carcass well fed from the stover
Nostrils a-flaring, at every new smell
A Heaven to Daddy, for me it was Hell
The Opera's heroine's fate in my head
So quickly displaced in this market of dread
The ugliest fish, catching you in a stare
With red blood eyes bulging and warning 'Beware'
Yuk! I saw them all hanging, head and feet clipped
Some bird or other, with plumage all stripped
Doused in some seeded oil, crispy of skin
And bunged in a basket of horrors within
At the next stall there stood a man, toothless and grinning
Skewering bugs down a pole that was spinning
Glazed them in sticky stuff, poked through a wire
Yup, my dad brought a stalk from the nodding old fryer
Dogs zigged-zagged in and out everyone's legs
Getting thrown little tit-bits, if valently begged
Then my father said ' dogs made a nice evening meal.
In a burger it's similar to eating veal!'
Further up there were tanks filled with variant fish
You could CHOOSE ones you wanted to eat in your dish!
Before he had the chance to - I pulled him away!
I'd had enough roastings of creatures that day!
We left but my dad felt, to make up to me
He'd buy a nice Orient ice-cream for tea
The wafer was normal, the cream tasted sweet
The best thing that Chinatown had here to eat!
Till I got to the bottom, curled up in a ball
In the wafer - the creepiest slug of them all
I screamed and I dropped it and stomped on it's head
Asked no forgiveness for the sweary-word said!
So, the next time Dad takes me to Opera's or shows
I'll not sit there next to him, with huffs and with ho's.
I'll take my bit sanity once curtains fall down
To that nice fish and chip shop on the Upside of town!
___________________________________________
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9 comments:
love it,
the ending is cool, food choice is mine,
divine line.
Good take on the image! I guess you don't often have Chinese take-away, huh? :-)
Culture with a Kapital.
Fine response to the prompt Lena!
Good work. Nice use of rhyme.
Good to see a well worked out rhymer. Nice Magpie
..asian cuisines are truly pleasing and delectable... very descriptive piece.. i think that's one best possession of your writing..!(:
Enjoyed it, as always!(:
Take care!
~Kelvin
What a fabulous read! I wish I could hear you read it aloud. Lakme, poor thing. I remember Joan Sutherland with the biggest headdress I've ever seen coming down the temple stairs...(dvd). So many great riffs in this poem. Brava.
I'm a fish & chips fan myself. Thanks for dropping by my blog.
Gravy, good poem topic. I'll have to write gravy for you.
Loved the ending here... :)
Cheers,
Arnab Majumdar on SribbleFest.com
Dear Lena: That was some fun and imaginative trip save for the extra bit o'"slug"!The company is so worth it! Yeah, next time "fish and chip shop" "upside"...
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