with thanks to Tammi Belko, who encouraged teacher-poets to write on the topic of cheese today at Ethical ELA: “Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese” (G.K. Chesterton).

an extended haiku, of sorts

For Love of Grilled Cheese

Mama and Grannie
decide they want Chinese food
I don’t like the smell

they’re frowning at me
holding my nose in Kam Ling’s
ordering grilled cheese

—not on the menu
I’m confusing the waiter
Just take bread, I say,

two pieces, and put
a slice of cheese in between
and butter outside
 
fry it in a pan…
a loooong time later, it comes
miraculously

(was someone dispatched
to a nearby grocery
in great vexation?)

Not long afterward
Mama has a surgery
Grannie comes to stay

Daddy is working
and doesn’t cook, anyway
I ask for grilled cheese

Grannie makes the thing
in the toaster… No, I say,
that’s not how Grandma Ruby

makes my grilled cheeses
Grannie’s face goes Mr. Hyde
like on Bugs Bunny

she shouts—the house shakes—
I’M. NOT. YOUR. GRANDMA. RUBY!
Heaven help me please

I may not get grown
if grown-ups demolish me
for love of grilled cheese

Grilled Cheese Sandwich @ Thunder Bay Regional Hospital. istargazer. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Note: I love Chinese food now.
And my Grannie. Mutual forgiveness and gratitude, for so many things.