POEM #24 SUSHI TRAIN

Picture from Wikimedia Commons, via Mary Lee Hahn at Year of Reading

I'm participating in Mary Lee Hahn's Common Inspiration- Uncommon Creations.  This morning I left for work this morning at 5:45, got home at 7:50 tonight, and then tried to write a poem about a sushi train, which I have never ever heard of (that was actually after I read all of the other poets' work, which is very funny and wonderful, and well worth a trip to the Year of Reading blog. I wrote a crappy limerick, then tried to channel my inner Douglas Florian, playing with the sounds in the names of different kinds of sushi. Finally wrote about the day last summer when a sushi bar opened in my very diverse neighborhood grocery store.

"Sushi Train"

The sushi bar
in the neighborhood
grocery store
opened to great fanfare.
Chefs banging gongs,
free samples
shouted invitations,
to come try this fishy delight.

And I watched
my neighbors-
carts loaded with
pepsi, hot dogs, white bread,
tortillas, enchiladas, frijoles,
chitlings, collard greens, mac and cheese,
crowd around
to partake
in a whole new world
of sashimi, wasabi, and squid.

(c) Carol Wilcox, 2013



*******

There once was a fishy named Sushi

His flesh was so firm and not mushy

To a roll he did go

With some rice just for show

And now there’s no fishy named Sushi.