Pineapple in a can,
salmon in a can
with crunchy bones
and gray skin, unpleasant
but not so much
as yellow fat crusted
on corned beef from Argentina.
This is not nostalgia
because I wouldn’t want
to go back to that drafty farmhouse
its yellow pantry shelves
stacked with stewed tomatoes,
elbow macaroni,
Old Gold cigarettes,
home-preserved strawberry jam
leaking red around the wax caps.
No, I don’t want to look out
those windows again
but last night
I ate cottage cheese
and I liked it.
-Valerie Nieman
(Originally published in Deep South magazine)
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