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Sweet Dreams are Made of These
by Kristina Woodhillpages of notes trying to suss out
the sugar from the beet,
the weight from the transport trucks
rolling for months on end,
holding fields to town,
rumbling, grumbling
for tiny cars to shift aside;
we-mean-business trucks,
through town, a necessary nuisance,
distant harvested heaps
dumped with precision,
flat factory grounds growing
long, 25-foot high flat-topped pyramids
of curious conical sugar beets,
struffoli fashioned by an Italian grandmother
determined to feed the world,
or clay cones carefully piled,
roving giant Pharaoh farmers'
over-sized hands
palming them
to the next fellow, the Grand Stacker,
a Paul Bunyan tale
no one would believe
without seeing,
for as soon as these
behemoth mounds are built,
another monster mouth
sucks them in and spits them
into more than a kitchen
where meets more than alchemy,
enabling pulp non-fiction
to meet every sweet-toothed child's
addiction,
syrup to white satin,
heaps to heaping spoonsful
11/24/2014 Posted on 11/24/2014
Copyright © 2025 Kristina Woodhill
| Member Comments on this Poem |
| Posted by Ken Harnisch on 11/25/14 at 03:49 PM ah, Kristina, only you could turn food processing into a lyric. This poem was an enjoyable song. I shall return to this melody again! |
| Posted by Chris Sorrenti on 11/25/14 at 04:25 PM Although never a big fan of beets, you never fail to impress me with your literary dexterity, Kristina. |
| Posted by Rob Littler on 11/26/14 at 09:30 AM Sugar Beet Days was an actual celebration in my hometown so the images for me were spot on, and the diabetes-machines of the deeper truth, goes beyond the sweet tooth, it plagues our consciousness, sugar IS the gateway drug...there is depth here worth farming. ;0) |
| Posted by Philip F De Pinto on 11/30/14 at 02:04 PM you are fortunate Kristina, as I get none of this lovely action around here in Dullsville USA, particularly the part about the stuffoli stuffing Nonna. I am missing all that good stuff that you probably delve in on a daily or weekly basis out there where the land is fair and never dull, I am certain, and so I want to thank you Kristina for this lovely ode and for reminding me of how much I am missing of sweet dreams made of these. |
| Posted by Leslie Ann Eisenberg on 12/27/14 at 07:11 PM WOW! amazing imagery, so colorful and fast, very impressive. felt like i was right there. a tall tale for the ages. xopk |
| Posted by Laura Doom on 12/30/14 at 12:07 AM ...and how sweet dreams would be without the stuff of which dreams are manufactured...a pleasure to have your tongue in my ear, so to speak. |
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