Starch Poems | Examples

back in the day

back in the day
we polished our shoes
laid out our clothes
put our hair up in curls with pointy picks
on Saturday nights

back in the day
it was church every Sunday
chicken or beef with noodles for lunch
always pie, cake and Jello
then a visit to grandma’s house

back in the day
we ironed our clothes
using sprinkled starch
dressed up to go on airplanes
purposefully did not swear
felt safe at school

back in the day

The Rue in a Baked Custard Tartlet

monks once used egg whites
to starch their habits crisp clean
dumping yellow yolks ~
but a waste not want not pledge
inspired a baked custard tart

in an act of grace
their heavenly recipe
was kept secret sold

I Got In Trouble With The Maid

I was seven, barefoot in the hallway,
nose pressed to the brass knob of the guest room—
she’d left the key out,
but I wanted to see through,
the way you want to see the belly of a piano,
strings naked, all hammer and throat.

The maid caught me,
her voice full of linen snaps and starch—
What are you doing, Miss?
I lied. Said I was looking for the cat.
There was no cat.
Only the shimmer of her hair under her cap,
and the broken goldfish bowl of my curiosity,
spilled on the carpet of my chest.

That night the sky turned dark like a locked door.
I thought about the keyhole,
how it had looked back at me.
How secrets sit still like fish
in the murk of people’s lives,
waiting for someone small and stupid
to come tap the glass.
And I,
with my hollow hands and soft mouth,
wanted only to know
what lived behind things.

Six-Line Shrug - Modern Art

     Petrified zombies march
       past displays of potato starch

     Onlookers stop to gape
       at what’s depicted on their capes  

     The clue connecting all this 
       floats upside down in the abyss

Lost City of Rucker

polish outside
royce, he hide a boy, called him sunshine

he so starch on the collar
he don't appreciate the cloth
till the potato off it again


stingiest thing ever, hold langstons typewriter
ima go shuffle it again for yu ryan, danial, ward the spirit
pop lost the address,
in his toe winkle, he had it

how this the rhyme?
the partner upstairs
cant see me
i do it this un?

the girls the stowaway fortune
beneath the slavery laws?
its the first time california girl not a bikini
girls, the womens rights is 60 year old league of dont care

Hybrid babble tap it chan
Jackie!
Jackie?

News instructions coming back
Huh? From your special where?
Here

Memos

"Food is our common ground, a universal experience." - James Beard 

Spice-sweet-sour-salt-starch-blended 
dumplings, like dim sum... 
Fish, meat, or greeneries filled
enzyme-fiber-mixed
nutrient cuisines... 
They thrill my
tongue...

Potato

Packed with starch, protein
Provided for many
People called 'earth apple'
Placed at gold value once
Potassium rich veg
Peruvian produce
Peel, slice, fry and enjoy

Lazy Balmy March Day

Air conditioner is loud and steady
Wind chimes prove the wind is ready
Balmy spring day bringing us March
Limber and lithe, not a bit of starch

Dogs stare at me on this lazy day
Loving the country in an appreciative way
Not a single sound, no tweet, chirp or peep
The kind of day I could do a lot of serious sleep

Trapped

I clean and cook.
I nod my head and I forget your faults.
So, why won’t you let me play?
I’ve been staring out the window all day.

I steam and starch your shirts,
I pretend to sleep when you leave at night.
I don’t want to be a disgrace,
but please, let me leave this place. 

I finished folding the laundry,
and I tucked the children into bed.
I laid out your cigars,
may I at least see the stars?

Nevermind.

Last night I dreamt of greeting nature.
Hello trees, hello meadows, hello grass.
I hear your breeze,
do you hear my pleas?

I put on a pretty dress,
I’ve remembered my place.
I’ll stop peering out the window to see the view;
instead, I’ll stare out the window and patiently wait for you.

Refurbished Nursery Rhymes: In the Case of Tommy Tucker

Why did little Tommy Tucker
Have to sing for his supper?
Did he stammer and stutter
To merit just bread and butter?
And what miscreant oaf
Would then give him a loaf
But nary a knife to cut through it?
Didn't Tom have enough strife
In his life with no wife,
Or did fat spread on starch
Help him chew it?

I wish i can

I wish i can touch the sky.
Put on wing and then fly.

I wish I can starch and rewrite my past.
Undo the things I did not want to do, and go for a recast.

I wish I can say and do things I always wanted to do.
Understand the things that others have done for me and know its value.

I wish I can be born again.
Stop asking question all the time how is it and when.

I wish I can express my feelings more clearly.
Let everyone know whenever I disagree.

I wish god I can know the value of whatever you have given me.
And stop cribbing about how I wanted thing to be.

I wish I can understand that there is always a second chance.
And understand that god or bad cannot be decided immediately at a glance.

sloppy birthday cake

The birthday cake melted into a sloppy pile
Making the old lady give up a rare toothless smile
She had told the baker to add starch which he would not do
Now the sloppy birthday cake was a river of goo

I AM POTATO

I have a skin, brown tan melolin
Inside of me is water, energy
I have nodes from which buds are formed
I am shapeN like a football, a peanut, a fat lumpy carrot
I may develop sprouting, buds, green spots
I may be spoilage, not cause my parents giving me everything I ask

Interspersed in a tubular, vallecular
If for I am green growing out my sprouts
I am better off tossed out
Thrown away
What, Who am I
The one with many eyes, but no hands
Whom, am eye with eyes and spots
Inside me is water, starch and energy
Inside me ivory tan inside me
I am russet Burbank Shepody, Umatilla
What nation to I come from
What nationally am I
You see I am not human
But I human-to-see

I have many so love
the growing points so are potato tubers, 
each with a little stem bud 
the Red, White, Russet Oh’ how we love

 begin to sprout, the growths those roots,
 eyes, and bumps have a high
 concentration of compounds see
I’m not human

I am a potato

animal Thanksgiving agreement

bunny wanted to host Thanksgiving and we said yes
Not realizing the tastiest food would be watercress.
Carrot soup, cabbage jelly and the lack of starch or bread
Meant we went home ready for turkey, feeling unfed.

Next time, I will host it said Slobin, the Robin.
Not him! Chickadee whispered while my head was bobb’n.
He always gets the cheapest birdseed ever found.
The squirrel couple stopped in their tracks and turned around.

Well it could be us, Mrs. Squirrel offered, if nuts do please.
The mice shuddered, for nuts were not as great as cheese.
We finally agreed to start bringing our own potluck food.
And at the next Thanksgiving we were in a better mood.

Hot Chills

A head cold in December
and the sun is brilliantly high
pinned to a sky-blue sky.

He needs an image for this distressed kind of joy,
a banana shaped image
full of starch and potassium,
one with yellow prehensile lips.

He sticks a wet nose
out of the garden door.
The squirrels are confused,
small birds hop around
as if they had just won
the lottery.

He needs a significant sniff,
one that suggests
apathy and elation in one snotty sound.

Shrugging,
he retreats to a laptop to key in mixed feelings.
Google notifies, that
that page -
Cannot Not Found.

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