The Produce Aisle
Do not buy the lettuce
those frothy topped leaves
are festering with bugs.
Soft-bodied caterpillars follow
their jaws dragging their bulging
green weight. Imagine
they could be crawling through your intestines
looping and burrowing through membranes
with their many sticky feet.
The broccoli is a colony of gnats
the cabbage is writhing with grubs
those bananas from Ecuador are ripe
with fruit flies, invisible
until they erupt from your throat.
Your body a breeding ground
as if you were already buried
and prone, those earth dwellers stripping
the flesh from your bones. The rot
and wither - a molding tomato
the skin giving way
as you place it in your mouth and chew.
Laurel N. is a poet and traveler. She has worked in various non-profit organizations aroundthe world and has taught English in Japan, Ecuador and Cambodia.
And now I’ll go eat some chicken