“A Short Ode To Sausage"Sad to say, there are people who regard lovers of sausages as relics from a kind of nutritional Dark Ages"…---Charles Simic, poet. Theologically, I’d say I was predestined to eat animals carefully stuffed inside their own intestines. I’m the first to eat knockwurst,and the last in a cholesterol tsunamito relinquish my salami to the authorities. Whether beef, lamb or pork--it will end up on my fork.(I’m clear about my priorities.) And for those who go into hystericsproclaiming sausages barbaric,I want you to understand:That though you might be leaneryou can only have my wienerif you pry it from my cold dead hands.”

“Poetry vs. ProseOne difference of courseis the length of the line.And some people supposethat prose doesn’t rhyme.But I have a theory that’s more like a question:If prose is lengthy fictionis poetry short suggestion?”

“I'm a vegetarian.You're a what?I don't eat meat.How can you not eat meat?I just don't.He says he does not eat meat.What?No meat?No meat.Steak?No...Chickens!No...And what about the sausage?No, no sausage, no meat!He says he does not eat any meat.Not even sausage?I know!What is wrong with him?What is wrong with you?Nothing, I just don't eat meat!”

“You want these back, don't you? You want me out of here so you can come back and take over where you left off. I don't blame you. It's your body and your brain-and your life, even though you weren't able to make much use of it. I don't have the right to take it away from you. Nobody does. Who's to say that my light is better than your darkness? Who's to say death is better than your darkness? Who am I to say?...”

“Writing is like sausage making in my view; you'll all be happier in the end if you just eat the final product without knowing what's gone into it.”

“I opened my mouth and kissed you then, the first time all night, attacked you and surrendered completely, and let’s get out of here. I’m ready, I’m finished, let’s not break up, no, no. Take me home, my boyfriend, my love.”

“No sausage?" he asked.Apparently my pork consumption habits were a matter of public record.”