Poetry Friday--"Soda Crackers"

At our library booksale I purchased a pristine copy of Garrison Keillor's collection of poetry titled Good Poems for Hard Times. It appears as though it had never been cracked open. Not once. Well, I cracked it open and came across a poem called "Soda Crackers" by Raymond Carver.

Soda Crackers

You soda crackers! I remember
when I arrived here in the rain,
whipped out and alone.
How we shared the aloneness
and quiet of this house.
And the doubt that held me
from fingers to toes
as I took you out
of your cellophane wrapping
and ate you, meditatively,
at the kitchen table
that first night with cheese,
and mushroom soup. Now,
a month later to the day,
an important part of us
is still here. I'm fine.
And you—I'm proud of you, too.
You're even getting remarked
on in print! Every soda cracker
should be so lucky.
We've done all right for
ourselves. Listen to me.
I never thought
I could go on like this
about soda crackers.
But I tell you
the clear sunshiny
days are here, at last.

Not a day later, I was in the grocery store with my daughter. A very famous cracker company is now packaging their soda crackers, a.k.a. saltines, in boxes with eight sleeves of crackers. Each sleeve supplies crackers enough to satisfy a cheese and cracker attack. It is so much better to package crackers in smaller sleeves because, in a larger package, inevitably, the leftovers go stale and end up in the trash.

This is the way my life goes, I get excited about soda cracker packaging. After I got over my excitement about the box, I told my daughter, "Hey, I just read a poem about soda crackers!" What a clear sunshiny day--crispy crackers and poetry--who can ask for anything more!

The Poetry Friday Round-Up for this week is being held at Picture Book of the Day.

Photo by spacebarpark.