Diet Poem by Nassy Fesharaki

We were young
All dressed, uniformed
All Yankees; I alone (foreigner)
In the line for our meals
In Lackland, USA

“Two, sunny-side up...”
This word and many more
With ‘bacon’ and add ‘hash brown’
Were all new
I felt dumb, dumbfounded

But abgousht and Jigar
Yek, do sikh
Ba shirdoon, Bana-goosh
Baghali, Badenjoon
That I knew were absent

Now
Years gone, every day we hear
This is bad, that sickens
Everything (that)
We ate night and day
Something’s wrong

Late-sixties and healthy
I’m misjudged as younger
Much younger and in times
Late-forties; and I eat all the things
From Eastern to Western of the past, present

Hey doctors, lab owners
Leave me alone
There’s no trust in your words
You are man’s unaware enemies
You fool all and yourself.