National Poetry Month - A Poem a Day - 4/30

Let's face it
you like processed foods
you like preservatives just as much
as the next 9-5er who also doubles
his income by taking a second job
at Starbucks

or the college student
who uses the last fourth of
her financial aid not on groceries
but on the latest sneaks from Supra
and that off-the-shoulder number
by Hellz Bellz
(Hell! She's not there finishing the
last of her Psychology major
but she's there to find a man who
can she can have 2.5 kids with
after graduation.)

or the cat lady down the street
with her canned fruit cocktails
swimming in a thick pool
of candy syrup
in which she will later freeze into popsicles

you like preservatives
and trans-fats
and high fructose corn syrup
of Frakenstein foods
despite the fact they give you
artificially sweetened tumors
that tastes like Grapple.

you like it
because it's cheap
and convenient
and easy

the three components to be living
in this high pace rat race
of monthly bills,
weekly training sessions,
and teeth-whitening dentist appointments

you like it because going to the market
is a chore
and you are exhausted after a 10 hour workday
to even try to figure out how to make recipe remixes
of organic foods that that unless you finish the Sudoku schedule
of meals for the next seven days,
your produce rot into a hairy beast
reminding you that you have wasted another $40
that could have gone towards your L.A.M.B bag at Nordy's

you like it most
because it only takes a minute in the microwave to prepare
and not 30 mins of prep with 20 mins of cooking time
all to prepare a dinner for your imaginary family of 8
when it is only

You...


that's eating.

Because wilted salad,
and three empty wine bottles
and having spaghetti
for the fourth day in a row
is a great reminder
that your ass
is
alone.

and THAT'S why you like processed food.