"A baked dish of fruit, or meat and vegetables, typically with a top and base of pastry"
Mother is a pie
An apple pie
A pumpkin pie
A pecan pie
A pizza pie
The number pi
A pie sliced into infinite parts
Mother is a pie
Sitting on the center
Of the round kitchen table
Surrounded by hungry children
With napkins folded into their shirts
And silver forks clasped in their tiny hands
They bang them on the table
Demanding another slice of pie
Mother does her best to comply
Everyone cries out at the injustices
“Why is her slice bigger than mine!?”
And “his has more frosting” and “how unfair”
Even though pie
Should not have frosting in the first place
And Mother never said life would be fair
Hungry kids prepare
For apple pie
Pumpkin pie
Cherry pie
Lemon meringue pie
Chocolate mousse pie
Pretending they are all just:
Cutie pies
Honey pies
Sweetie pies
In reality:
Mud pies
Who do these greedy needy
Snot running down their teary faces
Spoiled children think they are?
To protest and riot
For slices of pie
Like it’s a human right
In their checkered red and white
Diner world
Nevertheless they protest with pitchforks
They stand wobbly on kitchen chairs
Pulling each other’s hair
Pinching each other’s arms
Kicking each other’s legs
Screaming until they’re hoarse
Screaming for pie
Screaming for pie
Screaming for pie
Then receiving a slice and screaming for more
Apple pie
Pumpkin pie
3.14
Pizza pie
Pecan pie
Even if it was bought from the store
Key lime pie
Peach pie
A pie chart
Just one measly morsel more
And the pie
Torn apart from every side
(If pies had sides)
Is exhausted
Is starving
Is lonely in an aluminum tin
Left on the table, numb
Not a single child
Left over a single crumb
My favorite line in this poem is "Even though pie / should not have frosting in the first place" — it made me genuinely smile. I also really like the scene described. I wonder about the inclusion of pi, and also about the list of pies in general. I wonder if the poem would be more powerful if it just consisted of the third, fourth, and fifth stanzas, leaving the rest of the poem up to the audience to understand. I think they would get it...
ReplyDeleteDisregard the cutting comment! Wonderful poem and I love this as it is
DeleteThis poem fits beautifully with our next class theme: poems of the family, which we will discuss in class Monday. This poem is built from a line of homespun absurdism: "my mother is a pie." I like that line a lot. I like how the poem gives itself room to stretch out and improvise. This poem doesn't feel like it needs to edited down, but I could imagine it longer. It might be fun to get even wilder with the follow-ups to the anaphora. I enjoyed the wordplay here, as between "pie" and "comply" in stanza two. A witty and engaging poem.
ReplyDeletethis is so fun!!!! i love the line "like it's a human right." there is something about this poem that reminds me of a children's book and i would love to see it illustrated!
ReplyDeleteI love how creative this is! and how the poem balances being a lot of fun but also kind of sad because of how real it feels. and I love how the poem rambles because it fits with the nature of the kids but also makes longer lines that much stronger.
ReplyDeleteThis was very well done. I liked the way you used pie, which is usually fun and even here comes across as playfully, to depict something slightly more sinister.
ReplyDelete