A Day in the Life of the Cafeteria

Butter

Momma sculpted all out food out of butter
Required with searing fury it be eaten
Pies, cakes, roasts, fudge, vegetables
Layered with a stick of fat.
Rich and slimy, like
The witch of Hansel and Gretel
Required me be fattened up
(maybe ready for the Kill)








Woodburn

In my school where i was invisible
In 4th through 6th when not being thrown down the stairs
The teacher said the abuse must certainly be me
I got to going in the kitchen to help the cooks and make some friends.
They let me wrap the silverware and talked about
lives in the mountains, their recipes, their gardens
Miner husbands and often
we would laugh about how harsh kids could be
To me.

They taught me how to make oatmeal no bake peanut-butter cookies
(I also learned in 4 H , home ec. to cook some things)
They taught me to cook white beans, corn bread
green beans with bacon drippings, luscious bread
In time I learned what they did in our small cafeteria.
When I moved on to junior high downtown I spent time there
Doing the same at breaks. Hiding to get there unnoticed.
Learned pizza their style which was very unique,
Pepperoni rolls and the cinnamon buns that were
the specialty. Then I was thin.
That group were more Italian, and they were very
Expressive in the making of food for kids
Remarkably impolite to them.

High school it was different I never ate, sat on a bleacher and studied
Missing those warm kitchens. I've loved
To cook my entire life. I can do it pretty well
I suppose the recipes and the practicalities are all from these places I ate
The food of the schools. It was good in the hills.
It was such a surprise to find the food for kids here in my teaching life
Now it is just pulled and warmed, so unappealing and poorly made
Below what they could do if allowed to cook
And given enough people to do it better.
This seems the way it is in my teaching world.
The cafeteria is managed 'at the top 'and seen to
Compete for salaries or something. no pride.
It makes you sick to see the stuff they serve
Think of the collard greens and other stuff
We once had, golden tomatoes
Mandarin salads, cucumbers in vinegar
And even the franks and beans were good.
Then, when food wasn't my enemy, but a
Salvation from a beating day.