A Tin of Alphabet Soup
You write of essence, of spirit and soul,
You stir up a rich creamy broth
While I wait in a stiff orange waiting room chair
Waiting for the explosion
For the Eureka of discovery, for something special,
I wriggle in my seat and sniff the artificial air,
You shout to me that you've almost got it.
I remember when we used to lie in the grass,
Sniff and sneeze and chew the stalks and flick the ladybirds,
When I could hold your hand without frightening myself
About the acid that you spilt on your sleeve
About the gore that you forgot to store and stack away,
When I could reach up on tiptoe and kiss your nose
Without having to slam on the brakes and steel myself from hitting the horn,
Because you would career into overdrive and skid through all the red lights.
You tell me to breathe in the air of discovery,
You tell me that we'll be going out to dinner tonight,
By candelight and moonshine, we'll feast with silver cutlery,
And make a toast with white wine to what you have found,
But can't you remember when we didn't go out to get drunk,
We lit candles in the midst of our brick laid apartment block,
In the middle of downtown Brooklyn, and we didn't toast to you,
We toasted to us, us, with plastic forks and paper plates,
And KFC steaming in a pool of grease,
What the fuck did it matter anyway, when you were my king,
My knight in shining armour, upon a snowy white steed,
With sword in scabbard, ready to face it all,
For his queen.
So I went home on Tuesday night, and made you some alphabet soup,
Just like when my mother plaited daisies in my hair,
And offered me bowls of alphabet soup and told me that it'd make me big and strong,
I pulled on my dashing pink glittery wellies,
Just so you'd think I was losing it, just a little,
And I threw the bowl over your head, and yelled Eureka!
Fucking Eureka!
And held the gun to your head,
And when you told me that my soup had too much salt
And I was holding that gun wrong,
I told you that you were right,
And told you to drink the rest, because it'd make you big and strong.
And told you that I should experiment with the gun, to make sure it worked,
Pulled the trigger.
And went back to the kitchen to drink the rest of the soup in the pan.
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