Usually
We eat rice.
And I forget about potatoes
Until they’re wrinkled and shrunken and sprouting shoots.
But today, I remembered.
Today, maybe,
I needed the extra comfort that only a potato can provide.
I found them,
In the bottom of the trolley,
Where they sit with the onions and,
For some strange reason,
Kairo pocket-warmers.
They were shrunken,
Shrivelled,
Covered in sprouts.
I peeled that all away,
Down below the green
Which Mum always said could kill me.
I peeled that all away,
Down below the ugliness of the hairy eyes,
And the sickness of the solanine toxins
Hidden amongst the green of the chlorophyll.
I peeled that all away.
And I discovered
That down below the potato’s broken exterior,
Down below all the bits just waiting to kill me,
Was something I could work with.
And so I had potatoes for lunch.
Kamakura Dreamin' 