Food Poetry | Free Verse
I’m Not A Potato
What would be an absurd thing to receive in the mail? Poetry Prompt
A tap on the door a scamper of feet a tell-tale zhoom zhoom of a four-stroke zz-zz-zipping away I open the door no one in sight, but propped by the wall, a postmarked brown paper parcel
“What’s this I have here?”
Cut to the quick and inside I find an odd bubble-wrapped item long like a loaf round like a rissole heavy as a good pint of milk
“What can it be?”
I rip off the wrapping curiosity beats caution 😉 and out drops a note neatly handwritten This is for you. It’s an Okinawa Sweet Potato! True to their word there in my hand a dimpled, buff-coloured yam tapered smooth to a point at each end
“Well, I be damned!” “How weird is this?” “Who would have thought?” “How can this be?”
Questions swirl round in my head I pick up the note and for the first time see three tiny alphabet letters P.T.O. I flip the note over and here’s what I see -
I read out aloud, “I’m not a potato nor a yam,” “Really? Sounds like a scam!” I talk to myself and think-ponder
“Whoever sent this I wonder?”
I rifle through wrapping and that’s when I see the mini-scroll bound with a string I pull it undone and lo and behold it’s an invitation to attend the Australia Day party of, who else but Shannon, my purple-loving, vegetarian friend, and under the line, Hope you can come, are a few extra words and a photo to boot, “This looks divine! Please, could you make one!” Okinawa Sweet Potato Pie 💜
© Carolyn Hastings 2021
There’s actually more to this story but I’ll keep that for another day. For now, I’ll just let you know that officially, but somewhat contentiously, it’s Australia Day on January 26th. It’s an annual national commemoration of the day the First Fleet, comprising 11 British ships commanded by Captain Arthur Phillip, arrived at Sydney Cove in 1788. On board were the first white people to settle in this country, many of them convicts transported from Britain for crimes they’d committed to stave off poverty and starvation.
Poverty and starvation were the driving forces behind the introduction, in the early 1600s, of the purple sweet potato to Okinawa, the smallest and most southern of Japan’s main islands. This part of Japan is prone to typhoons which cause mass destruction of lives, livelihoods and traditional food crops like rice. The addition of a highly nutritious root vegetable to the island’s staple food chain protected its population from famine and disease. The antioxidant and anti-carcinogenic properties of the Okinawa Sweet Potato, are thought to be a key factor to the longevity of the Japanese islanders.
I’ve never made an Okinawa Sweet Potato Pie. I’m seriously tempted to give it a try. We do have the Okinawan variety of sweet-(not)-potato available here in Australia but they’re not always in store when you need them. Maybe if I go and check my front door, there might just be……
Thank you to Dr. Preeti Singh for tagging me to join Lucy The Eggcademic (she/her) food poetry prompt — What would be an absurd thing to receive in the mail? Here is Dr. Preeti’s tasty offering -
And here is Lucy’s original prompt article in The Brain is a Noodle for those of you interested in joining the challenge. I’m thinking this one might appeal to Suzanne V. Tanner, Francine Fallara, Dr. Fatima Imam, and Indubala Kachhawa.
