VITAMINS AND MINERALS

1. The Rooms Look Bad
2. The Man, So Stuck
3. He Wants to Move
4. He Takes a Nap
5. He Falls Away
6. He Sleeps Too Much
7. He Needs to Breathe
8. He Finds the Book
9. Just for Example
10. And So He Does
11. Just Follow Me
12. He Grabs Some Cake
13. It Comes to This
14. The Soul Seems Lost
15. Kick Ass





13.

It comes to this. It comes to this.

The soul it seems has just one choice.
That choice must be to change his voice.

It comes to this. It comes to this.

THE SOUL:

No longer, man, we can just play.
This, your life, will end this way.
Unless you take a new outlook along with drastic measures.
And sacrifice your great obsessions for ordinary treasures.
Do you need to get some strange disease to get it through your head?
Or is this just a hopeless case, and best you’d be if you be dead?
Or can you eat and drink well-balanced?
Are you geared to take this challenge?
With junk food, can you moderate?
And make the choice to modulate?
Too much sugar is bad for you.
But a little bit you could make do.
For if you walk this road some more
This road will end at Deathly Door.

THE MAN:

But I’ve tried it all and nothing seems
To coincide with all my dreams.

THE SOUL:

You’ve tried it all, except one way.
Just listen then to what I say.
Junk food and the diet fads
That tempt your mind when you see ads.
Those ads are there to steer I find
Not your body, just your mind.
And you are more than mind and brain.
Much more than all your hurt and pain.
Don’t follow my diet with such fever and such zeal.
Just eat to feed your body, and enjoy your every meal.
What you eat and what you drink.
How you feel and what you think.
Exercise and attitude.
Resilience and your fortitude.
And don’t forget your supplements and nutraceuticals.
They’ll give you strength and stamina and healthy cuticles.

THE MAN:

My fingers and my hands are fine. Really they’re okay.
In fact, I had a manicure just the other day.
She told me that each nail I had had a pretty moon.
I thanked her and I tipped her and she said to come back soon.

The soul grows weary from this diversion and so he takes a break.
The man, he feels, could maybe use another piece of cake.

It comes to this. It comes to this.

03/19/2008

Author's Note: Vitamins and Minerals was written in June 2003. It was originally performed as a One-Man-Poetry-Show at One Arm Red Theatre in DUMBO, Brooklyn. You can read the poem in its entirety. Or broken up in 15 individual pieces.

Posted on 03/19/2008
Copyright © 2024 David Garner