Africa on a Plate

This liver looks like Africa,
the onions like great white chains.
There's a fried vessel where the Nile should be,
a hole for Lake Victoria,
Libya up there oozing bile
(I jab it with my fork), and
South Africa sick with cirrhosis.
Turn the plate around: Look at it.
This organ produces red blood,
it seats emotions,
metabolizes minds;
it's cooked,
too well done,
burnt
and curling up on the edges,
getting ready to cave into itself,
a ball of meat, wrapped in slimy chains.
I didn't order this.
Take it away, quickly.


(Arkansas Magazine, Arkansas Democrat, June 29, 1986)