Prompt: “Surgery often looks like murder if you judge it halfway through”

[drippedonpaper]

Title: "Food Surgery of Life"

Where is the middle?
Where do you stick in a toothpick, to see
If I am cooked, complete,
All the way through?

These days, it's like I have a whole banquet
In the oven of my life.

Is my education done?
The degree was messy,
Class after class,
Stumbling blurry-eyed
From laptop to toddler,
From class to car rider line
If I studied, they flooded the bathroom sink.
Too often, I awoke
The pattern of computer keys spelling tired across my face.

Career is a delicate dish.
When do you know that one is ready to eat?
It's in, it's out
Change the pan, maybe a cookie sheet
Oh, now it's dripping.
The smoke detector is too loud!

Life's oven off, regroup,
Let it cool.
Time to clean the oven.
But a life is not an iron cell
Empty, gaping, forgotten.

Time to fire it up again.
See if I can cook something that doesn't burn.

My dishes of new recipes
Oooh, a relationship desert,
Let's top it with pillows of delectable meringue
Nicely brown,

Ok,
Well, I think I can repaint that wall above the oven
The singe marks aren't too bad
Now that the fire is out.
A minor setback.

Hungry nights when nothing cooks right.
Dough cooling in the fridge,
A table strewn with drips and spoons,
Flour and pepper and seeds, oh my!

This relationship desert may not happen.

My phone beckoned me.
Oh my, look at that:
The YouTubes of Bikini Bimbos with Blenders
Oh, yeah, mix it, baby!
Makes me want to jump and squeal,
Let me calm down and scribble that recipe:
Surely I could make that,
I could do that,
I could be that.

Yeah, guess I could
Flat, play acting on a phone screen
But when the camera is off
The sticky blender whisked away
I shower and scrub
Still hungry.
Neither of us nourished
By a dessert without a touch,
A taste,
A cuddle.
He can press replay
But we're both still hungry.
Screen pixels never grow my body
Only my imagination.

No shortage of advice from friends,
"Did you preheat Life's Oven?
My sister did and baked a nice job,
Tender AND juicy."

Time to stir it up!
"Back again?" the checkout clerk asks.
"Cooking for a party?" the college advisor asks,
Scanning my classes for a total.

"Now that's going to make a delicious life,
Can you pay for it now?"

Yes, damn it, pay, pay.
Money out, hope out, show my hand,
Give it all I've got.
Let's bake another mess!

Edison said life is mostly finding
All the recipes that aren't the answer,
All the ingredients that never mesh.

I bake, and I bake
And
Every day, the soul eats.

Nourish, growth, forever apparently.
New hunger, new needs
New messes, new life
Always a cycle,
And every now and then,
A souffle year
That does not fall

But even souffles
Are eaten,
Every dish empties,
Even if just scraped into the trash.

I nourish the parts of my life
Sometimes live off crumbs,
But life's an oven on a Baking Show

Feel free to guest star,
But please know
Nothing was killed in the making of our dinner
Except the dream I thought I had.

Comments

[adoptedwriter]

Oh wow! Hugs...Heart-breaking in some ways, but what a beautiful analogy between creating a meal and building a life and dealing with all the expectations and issues in the process.

[drippedonpaper]

It's impossible to cover a whole life in a poem. I'm actually in a really happy marriage now.

But I decided to add and fictionize a bit, mixing in my story with shades of things that did happen and ones that...I changed them a bit to fit the theme. But all the feelings are definitely true.

Have I mentioned I can cook, but don't find it relaxing as some do? At least I am better at cooking than at "cooking up a life" lol :)

I appreciate your comments!

[erulissedances]

I love the balance and constant shifting of balance and tasks that you show through this. I fear that final line is true for many these days, and that may be feeding into that discontent that seems to be so prevalent in our current society.

- Erulisse (one L)

[drippedonpaper]

Yes, I feel it's a truth, but (personally) I choose not to live there. My life is pretty much in no way AT ALL what I thought it would be. But, sometimes you just have to choose to dance to the music that is playing (instead of the song you wanted), because heck, rejoice that you can still move, and you can still dance.

Go ahead and dance and see where life takes you, right? :)

Thanks so much for reading and commenting!

[roina_arwen]

Very creative - I like the metaphors of cooking up a life. My main critique is this line, which seems oddly phrased:

Life over off, regroup,

Otherwise, well done!

[drippedonpaper]

Thank you so much for catching that! It was a typo.

I'm glad you like the metaphor :))

[roina_arwen]

Aha! The line makes more sense now, lol!

[drippedonpaper]

I seriously appreciate your "heads up" :)

How is your weekend shaping up? :)

[roina_arwen]

My weekend is shaping up to be pretty good, just chilling out right now. How about you?

[drippedonpaper]

We are going to go to the Top Gun movie. My husband feels nostalgic. :)

[roina_arwen]

It was REALLY good! Enjoy!

[drippedonpaper]

Do you think they will make a third movie? :)

[mollywheezy]

Very creative! I love the analogy of cooking for life. My favorite line is "The pattern of computer keys spelling tired across my face." Been there. ;)

[drippedonpaper]

Yes, I loved when I "got" that line (how does one explain the writing process?)

I would love to write only lines like that, but they seem like rare gems. So fun to "find" one though :)

I hope you are resting up after your trip? :)

[banana_galaxy]

I feel this. And I'm thinking, one of the trickiest parts is that society seems to give us one single recipe we're supposed to follow, but even if we try to follow it as best as we can, it can still not turn out the way we're told it's supposed to. Which I guess is where we discover that there's all these other possible recipes to try, and it's hard to know which ones will turn out right for us.

[drippedonpaper]

Yes. And we are always hungry again, right? It's this whole cycle. Not just a meal to feed us for the rest of our lives, but a constant process. What nourished us and our kids today isn't what we need tomorrow.

Life is a discovery. It's...as a kid especially, I just wanted security and something to hold on to. But as I age, I'm seeing its the journey. Holding on. Trusting answers can be found. Pivoting when I discover, yet again, that change is necessary AGAIN in my life.

Thanks a lot for your entry too. That book sounds amazing. Kim's Convenience is one of my favorite shows. I can see now, from your entry, how genuine some of the emotions must have been.

Hugs to you!

[banana_galaxy]

Oh gosh, yes, so much. I am a very different person now than I was 20 years ago.

I think when I was younger, I wanted a lot of excitement. Nowadays I just want safety, security, and stability. I think that came from years of feeling unstabilised and on the rocks in my primary relationship.

I still haven't seen Kim's Convenience. I think the characters are supposed to be Korean? I usually have reservations when they cast Asian actors in Asian roles that aren't the specific Asian race they are. But I've heard it's pretty good, aside from the final season when someone (the director? Someone else in the production team?) made some pretty poor decisions that made a lot of the actors uncomfortable. I haven't read much of Simu's book yet. Only the beginning, while I was waiting for the event to start. I have other books checked out from the library that I have to prioritise first. But what I've read so far is good!

[drippedonpaper]

Thanks for reminding me of the unusual casting choices (or maybe, the fact that they are usual, and it would help if that changed.)

I know that my 15 year old daughter feels strongly that she would never try out for certain roles because if the role was designed for people of a certain ethnic group, she feels it is wrong for her to compete with/ possibly take that role.

I liked Kim's Convenience partly because it's kind of a journey of parents trying to learn how to let their kids grow and change as young adults, and what love looks like while granting freedom. Loving someone after mistakes and learning to let go of dreams you didn't even know you had can be hard, but seems necessary as kids grow up.

I hope you have found/find the stability you desire :)

[swirlsofpurple]

Adore this interp of the prompt and the execution of the allegory of life as a baked thing

[drippedonpaper]

Thank you so much. And baked thing it is. I often feel like a kid at a table, cautiously poking food with a fork say, "What is this?"

Seriously, life, why the heck is the Supreme Court serving certain dishes this week? etc.

I appreciate your kind words!

[favoritebean_writes]

I love this!

[drippedonpaper]

Thank you so much for your comment :)

[ofearthandstars]

Awh. This is creative and lovely and sad all at once. A really beautiful analogy you've woven here - really well-done (no pun intended...okay, so maybe a little pun intended.)

[bleodswean]

This is an inspired analogy and you took it in every conceivable direction! I enjoyed it very much! Best of luck on becoming a life gourmond!

[alycewilson]

This is so good! One of my absolute favorites from you. The metaphor works extremely well, as does the wry humor.

[dsrmousey]

Brava! I loved this! Hel!s I really do love this! Peace~~~Desiree

[gunwithoutmusic]

Oof, this hits me hard - recently I had the feeling that I blinked and suddenly was pushing 40, and, while I don't exactly hate my life, I hate this feeling like I haven't really accomplished anything, like everything I've tried hasn't worked out and... well, it's not a great feeling. It was nice reading this, though; even if it's not exactly the same thing as what I'm feeling, it helped me feel a little less alone.

[marlawentmad]

This is a great metaphor for the heavy turns and stumbles of life. I really enjoy the upbeat tone of this. It makes me think of those manical "everything is fine!" moments. There is a wholesome optimism throughout this with a wry edge. I relate to this strange mad dash through life.

[dadi]

This is brilliant! (and I am very glad to read in the previous comments that the sadder parts don't refer to your own life!)