Pickles

There’s a road sign that

one sometimes passes

on the country roads of Quebec

a child lying still on his side

next to the road

 

And the words read

“This child could be your own”

though of course

they are written in French

 

But you’d rather add brine

to an overabundance of peas

peppers and zucchinis

stuff them safely away 

in a dark spot

in the kitchen cabinet

in a mason jar and 

wait

for the lactic acid tang

to bring out 

the pickle

 

These pickles 

are living things

you know

and you can 

almost taste them

with their garlic

and dill

 

But instead

you think about 

snake urine

and how it 

might smell

 

The child will be fine you say

He’ll grow up to be an insurance broker

Get a divorce at 43 

and when he’s eighty-four

his toes will be like gherkins

his nails infected with fungus

and he’ll remember 

that day 

when he

played dead.

 

 

 

 

 

Reviews

[Beccy]

Pickling is good it preserves and keeps thing fresh for a long time; not so opportunity, or the promise contained in childhood.

Beccy.

[MOON]

Insightful commentary of the way we ignore hats right in front of us , or turn away pretending it does not exist or all will be well . Pickled an apt title.

[Usman Muhammad]

Your poetry is too beautiful.
Although this poem was deep and i had to read it again to understand it better.... and well there is nothing to say besides Well Done Sir, you are a true talent.

[. serah .]

-- i think that this piece is definitely a stanley kubrick film... and astounding because it achieves what such a film would achieve in very few words... -- i'm of course reading this piece through the prism of my experiences... -- for most of my life, i might have been an observer... but now i am a participant... a lot like the child... in suspended animation... wondering if my life will pick up or get pickled...

[roarke]

analogies, they are so relative..... and there in the truth is magnified in the microscope of life passing and the one-eyed researcher runs to catch up while two plates of glass set leaking.

fine stuff Frank.

[clairekeown25]

super

[James William Dyer]

Reminds me of a humorous Raymond carver...again, great write

[Robin]

You are a fabulist , who combines verbal performance Art with literary acrobatics of the senses .

[Ed Hart]

you think it's alright for you to go about waving that scalpel you use for a pen, and drawing a blood from every passing pair of eyes, just like it was nothing but a sign at the side of the road