Friday, September 27, 2013

Not the Only One

My sister has been helping to empty out the building from the homeschool co-op she taught in last year. She brought home a book of very funny poems, "It's Raining Pigs and Noodles" by Jack Prelutsky. I laughed so hard when I read this one, I just had to share it. Leftovers in the refrigerator are one of my pet peeves, and I detest keeping food until it is beyond eating. I consider it a peculiar brand of living in denial. No, nobody wants to eat that. No, there's not enough to serve again for another meal. NO, it's not expensive enough to justify wasting our precious fridge space! NO, WE AREN'T GOING TO EAT IT FOR LUNCH BECAUSE IT WILL BE SO FREAKING BURIED BEHIND ALL THE OTHER LEFTOVERS THAT NO ONE WILL FIND IT! THROW! IT! AWAY! What is the deal with saving a half cup of overdone broccoli, four shavings of green pepper, and three-quarters cup of pasta? Ugh! And the worst is when there's a good deal on old produce. It's grabbed up to be cleaned and preserved, but what really happens is that it sits on the counter for a few days while no one has time to clean it, growing a nice infestation of fruit flies to destroy all the other GOOD produce. Gaaahhhh! Anyway, this made me feel better.

Deep In Our Refrigerator
by Jack Prelutsky

Deep in our refrigerator, there's a special place
For food that's been around awhile... We keep it, just in case.
"It's probably too old to eat," my mother likes to say.
"But I don't think it's old enough for me to throw away."

It stays there for a month or more to ripen in the cold'
And soon we notice fuzzy clumps of multi-colored mold.
The clumps are larger every day, we notice this as well;
But mostly what we notice is a certain special smell.

When finally it all becomes a nasty mass of slime,
My mother takes it out, and says, "Apparently, it's time."
She dumps it in the garbage can, though not without regret,
Then fills that space with other food that's not so ancient yet.

Yep. Enough said.

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