Poem - Sweet Potato Surprise

A poem, written in ten minutes in a writing group.  You know how writing sometimes takes an unexpected turn before suddenly taking another one?  This is a true story of my quiet lunch at home on Tuesday.  Until it becomes less true.

Sweet Potato Surprise

Lunch. Dismayed surprise.

Between supermarket and home

My sweet potato ready meal transformed.

One new word appeared

To spark fear into taste buds

More used to bland baked beans.

“Spicy.”  Horrific

Hammer images of burning tongues

And diarrhoea.

All was well.  Mildest spice

The reality.  A mind relieved,

No extremist vegan vindaloo.

As I ate, stress free,

A horse walked past my window.

Bold, dark, out of place.

In Byker, walkers are

On two legs, canines off leads,

Or felines running free.

Was it real?  I ran out.
Pavement.  Grass. Empty.  Barren

Except for litter.

So did I hallucinate
Equine invasions?  Or worse,

A spice free burger?

My sectioning is coming.

A team of psychiatrists

Gather outside my gate.

“She’s seeing horses,

She needs Olanzapine obliteration

And Thorazine laced chicken tikka.”

Falling into psychosis.

Safe food and farm animals my delusion.

They all say it’s wrong.

This, my lunchtime reality,

Is meaningful.  Listening,

I will stroke one cow

While eating another.

Prophetically condemn

The Tory government.

They are cause and effect.

Feed us with insanity and

Eat our bright future.