Consumable Food Units
"A hot dog at the game beats roast beef at the Ritz."
Humphrey Bogart
To the average baseball fan,
Hungry for his team to win,
A hot dog is more than a hot dog.
But to a professional food taster
It’s a consumable food unit,
Measured by how it tastes,
Not by how healthy it is for you.
You’ll probably eat your hot dog
On a regular white refined flour hot dog bun,
Never chewing over how much sugar
Is in the bun, ketchup, or mustard.
Today, you’re going the whole dog,
Having it with pickle relish, too.
When you’ve finished your fourth dog,
You stand up and shout with an appetite
To the stadium hot dog vendor
Hot dog here! Hot dog here!
Then, you reward yourself again,
Polishing off another doggie.
But this time you quaff it down
With your fourth ice-cold brewsky.
It’s the top half of the ninth inning,
And you’ve got a buzz on.
Plus, you’re feeling full and fat.
Besides, your team leads by a run.
Life never tasted so good.
Victor Henry's poetry and prose poems have appeared in small press magazines, anthologies, and e-zines, such as Slipstream; The Paterson Literary Review; Nobody Gets Off The Bus: The Viet Nam Generation Big Book; Vietnam War Poetry; The Homestead Review; Red River Review; The Monterey Poetry Review; The Porter Gulch Review; Dead Snakes; and Misfitmagazine, among others. His book of Vietnam poetry, What They Wanted, was published by Future Cycle Press.
"A hot dog at the game beats roast beef at the Ritz."
Humphrey Bogart
To the average baseball fan,
Hungry for his team to win,
A hot dog is more than a hot dog.
But to a professional food taster
It’s a consumable food unit,
Measured by how it tastes,
Not by how healthy it is for you.
You’ll probably eat your hot dog
On a regular white refined flour hot dog bun,
Never chewing over how much sugar
Is in the bun, ketchup, or mustard.
Today, you’re going the whole dog,
Having it with pickle relish, too.
When you’ve finished your fourth dog,
You stand up and shout with an appetite
To the stadium hot dog vendor
Hot dog here! Hot dog here!
Then, you reward yourself again,
Polishing off another doggie.
But this time you quaff it down
With your fourth ice-cold brewsky.
It’s the top half of the ninth inning,
And you’ve got a buzz on.
Plus, you’re feeling full and fat.
Besides, your team leads by a run.
Life never tasted so good.
Victor Henry's poetry and prose poems have appeared in small press magazines, anthologies, and e-zines, such as Slipstream; The Paterson Literary Review; Nobody Gets Off The Bus: The Viet Nam Generation Big Book; Vietnam War Poetry; The Homestead Review; Red River Review; The Monterey Poetry Review; The Porter Gulch Review; Dead Snakes; and Misfitmagazine, among others. His book of Vietnam poetry, What They Wanted, was published by Future Cycle Press.
