Fruit
Vitamins and whatnot
Something about antioxidants
Eat the rainbow they say
Twelve oranges, two bananas, and a slice of watermelon later
I am still craving sausage and pancakes
Don’t try to reason with me. I know the arguments,
It’s just that sometimes the dopamine
Isn’t in the mood for a nectarine.
The want for serotonin not met by a whole cluster of grapes
Here is how to love me today:
Open the tap on endorphins, somehow.
Flatter and flirt and tell me how proud you are to know me
Or, if that is too difficult
Give me anything fried, or glazed, or frosted
Blow the stacks off glycemic indexes and then add bacon
This is the yearning for home cooking
For comfort foods built on a foundation of butter and starch
Resolutions for the new year destined for utter failure
Upper Room
From the basement couch
I share a moment with the twelve
students gathered at a distance
Twelve glowing faces perched on this tiny table
So much remains to teach them
and the days are few
I tell them plainly
but all they hear is parable
I welcome each one
Give them all I have at this hour of morning
This is my body
This is my blood
They will come away
knowing far less than I need them to
Take eat
One of you will betray me
Do they know how soon
I could be taken
Will they cut an ear on my behalf
or swear three times
They never knew me
Christopher Clauss is an introvert, Ravenclaw, father, poet, and middle school science teacher from Keene, NH. He has represented New Hampshire six times at the National Poetry Slam as a member of the Slam Free or Die poetry slam team. His work explores the bliss and turmoil of faith, parenting, teaching, marriage, and community in rural New England. Christopher’s poems have been published in OVS, Silkworm, Slamchop, and Recipes for the Resistance from Pizza Pi Press. His mother believes his poetry is “just wonderful.” Both of his daughters declare that he is the “best daddy they have,” and his pre-teen science students rave that he is “Fine, I guess. Whatever.“
