Rise On Marzipan Poem by Margaret Alice Second

Rise On Marzipan



I'm dangerously, totally addicted to sugar, started
this morning with a killer headache - neck skew -
head a steel grey clamp constricting earth - then
I shuffled, lurched and stomped to a shop to buy
3 big chocolate bars with toffee, peppermint crisp
and crisped rice, ate half of each & the headache
left like the devil upon meeting arch-angel Gabriel

Maybe this is not addiction, just casting out the bitter
pain-spirits by chocolate sweet, all attempts to wean
me failed - this is a sign that my guardian angels are
called by the delight of chocolates - I shall no longer
fight this strange need for something chocolaty and
sweet - so be it, it's my survival kit & has been since
I was a kid and ate sugar by the handful; life to me

Was an unbearably bitter medicine and a spoonful
of sugar was never enough to help the medicine go
down as I needed mountains of sugar to help me
through the travails of reality, my vision is to rise
on Marzipan and Sugar Plum…

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Denis Mair 28 February 2017

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Here is what your poem makes me think of...Mother Nature wove this craving for sugar into our motivational structure. Our sensorium has built-in bells and whistles that announce when we are being rewarded. Sugar is one of the instantly recognizable rewards. It can be a carrot, but it can also be a stick. I watch my grandson scamming and angling for sugar every day, as soon as he comes home from kindergarten. I worry how that will affect his value orientation as he matures, but maybe that is just an old person's sour grapes, because my body cannot handle as much sugar now. I worry about the value orientation of the world economy when I think about falling sugar prices. I think about how sugar producing regions are played off against each other, with poor workers at the bottom of the economic and hedonic pyramid. I believe the enchanted loom of our senses also incorporates stardust and pollen. But it is undeniable that we resort to metaphors of sweetness to speak of visionary moments.

0 0 Reply
READ THIS POEM IN OTHER LANGUAGES
Close
Error Success