Category: Food

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Of Meals And Men

When he’s hungry you simply can’t steer him
Away from the subject of food;
He orates on the matter of oysters
Be they fried, on the half-shell, or stewed.
Forgotten are politics, golfing,
Gridirons, and business-meeting.
He has gone sour on the things of the hour
With the single exception of eating.

When he’s well-stuffed, the story is different:
As I drag him to market with me,
He vacantly stares at the shelves full of wares,
And suggests maybe napkins or tea.
Or at home when I ‘m planning the menus
And I ask for suggestions, please, pet,
“Oh, what the fates bring–just any old thing,”
Is the kind of an answer I get.

And when filled to his ears, another vicious
Habit of his is ignoring the dishes.

by Ray Romine Tuesday, July 11, 1950

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No-man’s Land

My neighbor can’t eat this and that:
He is, the doctors say, too fat.

And I must eat some things I hate:
They tell me I am underweight.

And in between the two extremes
No one exists, except in dreams.

by Ray Romine Friday, August 24, 1951

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No Picnic

We leave a comfy, screened-in flat
To fight mosquito, fly and gnat.
Forsaking chairs and table, we
Squat on the ground beneath a tree
And try, with feeble laugh and quip
To transport food from lap to lip.

{Have dry-ice planes, I wonder, tried7
For when it rains, we eat inside.}
(alternate:)
{Oh for a plane and dry-ice! I’d
Much prefer to eat inside.}

by Ray Romine Tuesday, June 20, 1950

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Menu Pain You?

Where grandma worked and slaved to cook,
Her daughter’s child has nerves
At just the thought of what, once bought,
She heats–or thaws–and serves!

by Ray Romine Monday, January 14, 1952

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Meals And I

At breakfast, mother’s sure to say:
“Eat first, and then go out to play!”
And when at noon there’s such a BUNCH
Of fun, it’s hard to stop for lunch.
And, I suppose, I’ll grow up thinner
If I don’t go when called for dinner.
Fun’s fun, of course, but it is true
That EATING is important too!

by Ray Romine Sunday, August 10, 1952

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Meal Spiel

When we dine out, the weak and fleeting
Spread, we’re sure, has indicated
That the dangers attached to overeating
Are very highly overrated.

by Ray Romine Friday, April 14, 1950

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Maybe It’s Because We Used To Be A Boy Scout?

Bring on your hamburger and weiners–
With onions or pickles or relish;
For we are outdoor-cookinng-leaners
To whom open-air eating is swellish.

Be sure that the coffee is blackish
(The water it’s made from was brackish);
Taste oranges, cookies and peaches
(And mosquitoes and beetles–and leaches).

The neighbor-man’s chickens will visit–
DO pass a tomato to Mabel–
The celery’s luecious: or is it?
We’re using the lap for a table.

The sissies have dining roome cozy:
Oh how they must envy our freedom.
(But I’d trade it all for the COMFORT
They have when they sit down to feed ’em).

by Ray Romine Monday, September 11, 1944