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Wallace  
Ronald Wallace
(b.1945)

 
"The McPoem"

 

I must confess that I, too, like it:
the poem that's fried up flat and fast with condiments
on a sesame seed bun. Steamy, grease-spattered,
and juicy, fluent with salt, piping hot
from the grill, glazed with bubbling oil.
A poem you can count on always to be
the same – small, domestic, fun for the whole
family. Economical. American. Free

of culinary pretension. I used to have to ride
ten miles or so out to the suburbs to find
one back in 1956 when poems were
more expensive, reserved for connoisseurs.
Now everyone is welcome to the griddle.
(I also like toads, and all this fiddle.)

Evidently inspired by
Marianne Moore's "Poetry,"
and perhaps also by
Eve Merriam's "How to Eat a Poem."

© Ronald Wallace
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