American Pie, Divided

A tablet of marble white lard

sits like a prediction deep inside

my belly cavity wrapped and bent

inside fortune-cookie flesh,

but exercise as I might I can’t

work this fat off, not yet.

In pigs this fat is lard,

best fat for flaky pie crusts

because it’s pristine, and not

tied to skin nor marbled

with muscle, blood, or cream.

Alabaster ambergris from 30 years

of afternoon snacks in offices having

few excuses or places to pace except

to restrooms and snack machines.

Alluring slots for silvery coin drops,

clinks and whirrs, culminate in a

ker-thunk of robotic obeisance

yielding pale fragile chips that

fragment into flavor, pressing oil

and flecks of salt onto our lips

and cans of sweet bubbles that

gently murmur us awake.

Or Mars chocolate bars molded of

macho peanuts layered with

Venusian caramel on nougat beds,

unspeakable chocolate acts

by Peter and Paul…Saints?

rolling coconut into sushi hay bales

or puckery mouth buttons

undressing a flavor tease

on the tongue and playing

thin rainbow shell games.

The adage “a moment on the

lips forever on the hips”

or worse, the belly or beyond.

Because this ghostly fat

is apt to break apart with time

like ice floes to float free

and then jam the head or heart.

For decades, floors of workers trapped

in a calorie war, where snacks are

Trojan horses and the only winners

are a banality of billionaires,

war profiteers who don’t dare

pay for Pyrrhic medical care.

P.S. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visceral_fat#Abdominal_fat

Note: Snickers and Almond Joy still contain trans fat additives. Skittles still contain hydrogenated palm kernel oil. On the other hand, Frito-Lay has largely moved away from trans fats though it still uses a minute amount.