Haiku Sticky #436

This is wishful thinking. I'm hoping to be finished by December 1 with the large batch of turkey chili made with the Thanksgiving turkey carcass! (Actually, some went into the freezer, so it may be months!)

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

December 1
the pot of turkey chili
finally gone

Happy Haiga Day!

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

first morning walk
the expectation of
meeting a cat

Poetry Friday--"America = The Bottom Line"

On Sunday, I came across a Facebook post from Paula Poundstone:

Paula has a point. Americans are gullible consumers. This led me to thinking about how corporations can change Americans' thinking about what is good and what is good-for-you. They wheedle us into thinking that what is good can also be good-for-us. For corporations, it's all about the bottom line. They exist to make money, not to make us healthy. If they make a product cheaply, sell it to a gullible population, and get that population to crave the product so that they buy more, then the corporations' bottom lines increase.

When I was young, not many outside of immigrant communities had ever heard of yogurt--a fermented dairy product. In New York where I grew up, Dannon made simple yogurt products--plain, strawberry, prune (don't turn up your nose, it was my favorite), and that was about it. Then in the 1980s yogurt started to take off. Flavors were added. Its popularity grew. One day, 8 oz. containers turned into 6 oz. containers and were sold for the same price. Then 6 oz. was reduced to 5.3 oz. The flavored yogurts soon came to include choices with chocolate bits, candies, crushed cookies, and other add-ins. A whole new market was added for even smaller, "baby-sized portions" for babies and toddlers made with "organic" ingredients. When the initial yogurt market was saturated, "Greek-style" yogurt came to light. Twice as much in price, but Americans were getting more protein! Any potential protein benefit, though, was negated by upping the sugary add-ins.

As I said, corporations are out to make money. So, here we are, you're privy to yet another rant. I've also ranted in poetry, below, and you can blame it on Paula Poundstone!

America = The Bottom Line

"Sugar gave rise to the slave trade; now sugar has enslaved us." Jeff O'Connell, Sugar Nation


The corporate monster,
spying a borderline
healthy food, rejiggers
it with sugars and corn syrup.

Markets it as good-for-you.

The food, in a mere
twinkling, has been turned
into candy--highly addictive.

Highly profitable.

Breakfast cereal was
marshmallowed, dried
fruits gummy-beared.

Irresistible to kids.

The granola bar was
festooned with caramel,
spangled with chocolate bits.

Reintroduced as The Energy Bar.

Sugar too, has a new first
name--Organic. Therefore,
it must be good for you!
Cravings need not be denied.

America loves it!

The Bottom Line loves it, too.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

The Black Friday edition of the Poetry Friday Round-Up is taking place at Carol's Corner. Be sure to stop by!

Haiku Sticky #435

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

two cats:
their perceived hunger
intensifies

Happy Haiga Day!

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

a fall poem...
its lines not rhyming
but rimed

Poetry Friday--Thanksgiving Rerun

In 2010 I did a post on the women of the Mayflower, and then in 2013, I posted an ekphrastic poem inspired by an iconic painting of the "The First Thanksgiving, 1621" by Jean-Leon Gerome Ferris [circa 1915]. I'm going to post the painting and poem again today so that we don't forget the women of history. Of the 30 adult women who traveled on the Mayflower, only four survived the first winter!

Painting by Jean-Leon Germone Ferris, courtesy The Athenaeum.

Dear Mr. Ferris:

Re: your painting titled
"The First Thanksgiving, 1621"

We, the women of Plymouth
were not glowing with health.
Nor, were we given to smiling.
Yet, you portray us as robust,
clean, and gracious hostesses.

Rather, viscera from all manner
of wild creatures stained our dress.
Our scarred hands were burned,
swollen, cracked and bleeding.
We silently wept with pain, fatigue.

We cooked and served as was
our lot, while the stink of bear-
greased savages filled our noses
making us gag. Our own men, too,
had a noxious stink about them--fear.

Some may have given thanks
that day, but it was not the women.
Therefore, we write to urge you to
take up brush and palette once more.
Do not give us beauty, give us truth.

Signed,
The four who had the misfortune not to
have perished in the year of our Lord, 1621

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

I have a tee-shirt with "Writing women back into history" on the front. It's something I'm trying to do and I hope you are too. [Note: the shirt was purchased a few years ago from the National Women's History Project. It no longer seems to be available, but there are still "Writing women back into history" posters and banners.]

Visit Jane at Raincity Librarian for this week's Round-Up.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Haiku Sticky #434

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Text:

nearly Thanksgiving
a feast of roses covered
with snow