Hemingway Dines On Boiled Shrimp And Beer Poem by Campbell McGrath

Hemingway Dines On Boiled Shrimp And Beer

Rating: 2.9


I'm the original two-hearted brawler.
I gnaw the scrawny heads from prawns,
pummel those mute, translucent crustaceans,
wingless hummingbirds, salt-water spawned.
As the Catalonians do, I eat the eyes at once.
My brawny palms flatten their mainstays.
I pop the shells with my thumbs, then crunch.

Just watch me as I swagger and sprawl,
spice-mad and sated, then dabble in lager
before I go strolling for stronger waters
down to Sloppy Joe's.My stride as I stagger
shivers the islands, my fingers troll a thousand keys.
My appetite shakes the rock of the nation.
The force of my fiction makes the mighty Gulf Stream.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Gajanan Mishra 10 January 2013

Just watch me and My appetite shakes the rock of the nation. These lines touch me most. Thanks.

2 0 Reply
John Evans 03 September 2006

The last line is incorrect. It should read: The force of my MICTION makes the mighty Gulf Stream. Poets.org had it wrong for a while, but they've since corrected it.

1 0 Reply
Brian Purdy 11 January 2012

Easy target or what? Kick a dead man, will you? Hah! Hey, there, Mr. McGrath, when you accomplish as much and have given as much pleasure by your productions, when you have permanently altered the style and tenor of modern literature in your time - in other words, given your ALL in the effort, as did Hemingway, maybe someone will come along and take cheap-shots at you, too. And, in your case, Mr. Loose Lips, it will serve you right.

0 1 Reply
David Mclansky 10 January 2013

Despair not Mr C. McGrath That you've excited the bully wrath Of the mob that eyes with praise The poser in his shimmering haze; Papa wrote as one two fisted, On his genius he insisted; Who never got over his mother’s dresses, Or her insistence on his blond tresses; This manly man became a bore, To his wives he became a chore, Always ready with a punch For any man they had to lunch; In the end he could not conceal His fear of weakness that age revealed; Paranoid he took his life, Thoughtless of his loving wife.

0 0 Reply
Kim Barney 10 January 2015

John Evans in his 2006 comment was probably correct. The word in the last line should probably be MICTION instead of FICTION. While I had never seen this poem before, MICTION would make perfect sense. Just look it up in the dictionary.

1 0 Reply
Douglas Scotney 10 January 2014

And when I'm in Greece, watch me outbrag Zorba.

0 0 Reply
Gillena Cox 10 January 2014

this reads like the Caribbean Robber Mas man's chant in his treatise of 'how dread i am' as he walks through the streets blowing his whistle in between his words

0 0 Reply
Babatunde Aremu 10 January 2014

Powerful imagination and well written on uncommon theme. Kudos to the poet

1 0 Reply
Karen Sinclair 10 January 2014

I loved his angle and subject matter. Amusing original and managed to make me smile and gag at the same time. I detest (smell-fish) reminds me of an unfair sided spaghetti western and Leigh-on-sea combined

1 0 Reply
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