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Poems and Thoughts by Frank Maurer

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Diet

Entomophagy I opus 38

Do you know that, strangely now,
Early Atlantic slaves were fed on the then, undesirable lobster?
Today, with ever-reduced grazing areas on the planet
And fisheries that are pressed with over exploitation,
Humans are now contemplating returning to
A once ancestral desired cuisine of termites and their kin
Which at present are, by many, considered as absolutely horrible.

Bizarre how food choice is determined by
Fashion or need or revulsion;
What's different between a shelled sea creature
And terrestrial beings with an exoskeleton?

Entomophagy II opus 39

Oh dear! Why would one wish to ingest bugs?
Besides more humans continually needing protein
And efforts to reduce CO2 and methane,
Insects are a very desirable food source
Which fulfill all of the above.

For instance, on one acre during one year
A cow will produce 192 pounds
And chickens will produce 265 pounds
And 1,500 pounds of soy can be produced
And 7,700 pounds of algae per acre,
While crickets produce 65,000 pounds
And grubs produce 1,000,000 pounds!

Concerning space, cows need 20 square meters,
Pigs, 5; chickens, 4.5,
While crickets as a group require only 1.5 meters squared
And the lowly grubs need a tiny 0.1 square meters!

Insects as a superfood? Let's see.
They have three times more protein than beef,
Two times more iron than spinach,
With all essential amino acids.
Insects have 10% more vitamin B12 than salmon,
And a perfect omega 6:3 ratio!

With such credentials,
How could a challenged human population
Not heed what nature offers and, indeed, demands,
To save us from great hunger and malnutrition
In an ever hostile planet, pressing all
To eventually migrate polar north and some south,
Where temperatures will be more tolerable?

Get over it folks and learn to love
That source which enticed and, when found, delighted our ancestors--
Giving us our present day large brain and canine reduced morphology.

Lengua opus 164

You surprised me with lengua instead of Sweet and Sour shrimp.
You do know my gourmand culinary choices.

But you did surprise me,
Which, either way, would have won my heart!

One of the two cuisines would have melted on my tongue.

Thank you.  Frank.

To Meal Creators! opus 172

A friend called me one evening to wish me a Happy Birthday.
Within the conversation, she queried, 'Have you had supper yet?'.
I told her of my nibbles on a lingering, but good cheese,
Finishing up a can of cold New England Clam Chowder,
And a corn cob, rescued from the animal food I collect from a local grocery store.
(The corn cob was perfectly fine, just discarded because of appearance alone.)
Concluding the call, I thought of my past-- continual evening joy,
While married to my dear Nora, who loved to cook,
And who presented a coordinated, balanced and appetizing meal each evening.

How fortunate are those, coupled with a devoted, loving creator of meals!

R3 Food Dye opus 205

Humans create products with good taste and attractive color,
So that the purchase and consumption will be ever-increased.
It is Halloween and one possible danger is the ubiquitous Candy Corn sweet.
It contains the food dye R3 which studies have shown,
Ingestion by, especially children, increases hyperactivity.
Many superfluous items are added to our foods,
Which are mildly or strongly adverse to our health.
As Michael Pollan states in his book,'Omnivore's Dilemma',
'Shop on the outer walls of a grocery store,
To find the purest of healthy, unprocessed foods
For you and your offspring.'
Do not become paranoid, just be ever-vigilant!

Chance, My Grandson opus 207

Chance had tremendous challenges in his early life--
He had terrible digestive pain with much of what he ingested.
Diet, under the guidance of his parents,
Was juggled to make food intake less painful.
Chance had a 'different' sort of face,
With a cute, crooked smile (according to his father),
And strove hard to get over his weaknesses.
This boy, with his striving, did indeed, overcome those problems,
And he continually reminded me with his similarity
To Theodore Roosevelt's health struggles.
Chance worked on building up his body
By bike riding, bodybuilding, and coming to our farm to work.
When I offered to pay him for his labors,
He said, "I want no money from you, you are family!"
Chance increasingly became very popular with both his peers and elders.

One evening he borrowed his grandmother's car
And drove to the beach for recreation in the sand.
Something horrible occurred, where speed and three boys
Resulted in a terrible crash--all beyond recognition.

His absence has been a deafening silence--
We miss his airy countenance, always raising up our spirits.

Trees and Turkeys opus 217

Displaying a DC Christmas tree each year from a different state,
Is far superior than pardoning an innocent turkey at Thanksgiving--
One, the death of a tree in its prime,
The other, life for a domesticated totally innocent bird,
Which is a genetic corruption of a magnificent wild creature.

(Remember the feud between Jefferson and Franklin
to name the national bird--the eagle vs the turkey!
I guess it is best we are not mass slaughtering
our national bird for human consumption,
celebrating a mythical (?) dinner with those whom
we would soon annihilate.)

Nature AND Nurture opus 229

We receive our ontology,
Phylogenetically, through our parents.

We are what we eat.

We become what we behold.

So much to learn, so little time.

An Upper Trophic Level opus 281

I was comfortable with catfish as a product, raised in a hot summer environment. (Now after 40 years, summers are ever hotter--I remember at least three winters when all ponds would freeze over and the kids even skated -- not any longer.). While selling fish, customers had many questions, as is the wont in a direct Farmers Market. One, of course, was, 'Don't these fish feed on the bottom?' I quickly solved that one for a good reply, as well as for a better product: I used floating fish food, which created a wonderful feeding frenzy as well, which the many visiting school children immensely enjoyed! The nutrition of catfish flesh is quite complete and very healthy. But the 'haupt' subject which greatly worries me is the fact that we are fishing out our wild stocks, and, of course, most people wish to consume salmon and tuna and trout, all of which are on the top of the food chain--the highest trophic (feeding) level.

It worries me to see customers in a grocery store, ogling over salmon, when there are so many other, environmentally better fish species to be consumed. Captive salmon create their own problems such as antibiotics loose in the ocean near the floating pens, let alone the dissolving artificial food and fish waste. But most, the escape of domesticated varieties of salmon into the wild populations. Pond raised fish are isolated and do not create such problems. In general then, we must all be aware of the trophic levels from which WE feed as well!

Where does Prejudice End? opus 288

I have held this in for many decades.

I was raised a progressive Protestant
(I am now, as you may have read, a Humanist),
In Newton Massachusetts as a Congregationalist,
A church resulting from the competition with the Prebyterians
Where the 'Congregation' regulates and governs itself.
I rang the huge church bell for services (now automated!);
I led the young people's group to reach out to others--
We shared meetings with both Catholics and Jews.
(I now realize that Muslims were not at all present then in my life.)
I was a tolerant, open-minded young person.

I played music (see previous poems) in school orchestras
And met many other young musicians.
I was in a jazz band led by a Catholic trumpet player.
Because of his 'loudness' (like Mozart who detested the trumpet),
I moved to another trio with a Jewish leader.
When the trumpet player asked, "Why did you go to 'that group'?",
I answered, "Because they are better musicians."
I was open and accepting of people who came into my life.

In High School, I became good friends
With Eddy Fineberg, a French Horn player.
I had a 'tour' with him through his kitchen,
Where he explained that if I ever came to dinner,
(to which, I was never invited),
I could not eat off his 'Kosher cutlery'.
Later, when I was talking with his intellectual sister,
His mother cleared everyone out and began to admonish me
That I was not to interact with her daughter again,
Because my 'people' (ancestors) had ravaged Jerusalem
And contributed to the Jewish downfall--
I was personally thunderstruck and devastated.
On the one hand, I understand just what was going on,
But on the other, as a young person, it was difficult
To bear the pain and the feeling of near betrayal.

Fifty years later while chatting at a High School reunion,
Another fellow student said he had gone through the same situation.

I have lived knowing an Armenian High School girlfriend,
The people of whom had suffered in their own genocide.
My first playmate was a black first grader, in an all-white school--
His name I even remember--Billy Meritt.
I have lived with Blacks where I taught in Southern Africa.
I have taught with the last of the Constantinople Greeks in Turkey.
I have worked in the Civil Rights Movement.
I have also realized that ALL groups have their prejudices.
In that light I try always to remain open.
I have realized too, that some groups
Get more 'publicity' than so many others.

We should all feel the guilt for our subconscious dislikes
And realize that every group, with very few exceptions,
No matter what seems evident,
Has just as many prejudices as any other.
I believe this is why our beautiful blue planet
Is so very divided (with its human populations) amongst itself.

Are White Camembert and Brie Doomed to Extinction? opus 305

The power and strength and endurance of life on our planet
Is due to adaptation, thus survival, to ever-changing conditions on earth.
The antithesis of this is the desire of humans for standardization--
Sameness and comfort to continual and 'familiar' known entities.
Biologically, this leads, of course, to ever-weakening biological systems,
Which Homo sapiens are managing and controlling for their own pleasure.
How is this at all germane to our cheeses?
Well, we are facing a collapse of microbial diversity.
We have been relying on a single fragile strain of fungi
Which is now at a risk of dying out of existence on our planet.
To create our cheeses, Penicillium biforme has been chosen
To yield the desired colors, flavors, and aroma which the populus desires.
Now P. camemberti, a developed strain, considered a 'species',
Cannot reproduce, and must be continually created
By ever-more difficult cloning methods.
Along the way, other strains of mold have vanished from disuse.
The desired fluffy white mold, which grows quickly,
Has reached a condition which is locked in and not now found in the wild!
With variations of P. camemberti being completely stifled,
There has been an increase of harmful mutational errors in its genome.

Other cheeses, for the same reasons, are not out of danger--
A couple are Gorgonzola and Roquefort.
The single variety of cloned bananas, with an effective pest,
Could be completely decimated.
Variations of wheat strains are vital for survival, now facing the Climate Crisis.
Finally, if diversity within a species is lost, adaptability is lost.
With this in mind, we humans must revel in the pending enjoyment
Of the future variety of slight changes in color, aroma, and flavor!

'The Seasons of Man' opus 345

Humans have various important times during their lives--
The so-called 'Seasons of Man'.
While observing my seed-laden bird feeder,
I have noticed that the myriad of sparrows
During the winter months have declined drastically,
Now that it is almost May. Why?
Contemplating the seasonal food intake of sparrows,
I realized that not only are the natural seed sources now extant,
But that the new voracious nest-bound offspring
Demonstrate the need in their young lives
To have huge amounts of pure protein for growth.
The adult need for seed intake now requires protein-laden insects!
The behaviour of seed gathering
Is dominated by insect hunting for the young.

There are several examples of specific food needs throughout life.
One is the vegetarian frog tadpole
Metamorphosing to the insectivorous-carnivore adult.
Mammals also switch from high nourishment milk
To a carnivorous, vegetarian or omnivorous life.
But, through natural selection, most European humans, especially,
Have managed to continue consuming milk in their 'adult stage'.
We are all familiar with the lactose intolerant individuals
Who, because of the adult, milk consuming culture,
Must have a lactose-free 'milk' to continue imbibing with their fellows!

Neanderthals (and Early Homo sapiens) Could not Live on Mammoth Flesh Alone! opus 361

Butchered bones with stone blade marks are prominent in Prehistoric middens.
The question is, did our ancestors consume anything but meat?
Time has passed until now, when, with new research techniques,
We are learning that a large array of plant material
Has been detected and identified around the fossil dentition of the ancient ones.
Chard, wild oats, beans, wild peas, mushrooms, wild mustard,
Acorns, pistachios, and other nuts all have been ferreted out from their non-existent gum lines!
Meat, as it should be with us also, was not continually consumed,
Thus, resulting in a nice omnivorous diet, as our dentition so indicates.

Domestication opus 396

Have you ever noticed the multicolored coat of reindeer (caribou)?
In addition, if you conduct deeper research, how about Fallow Deer?
Both these species have been semi-domesticated
Over centuries of human manipulation.
The Sami have herded reindeer forever
And Fallow Deer were transported from Turkey to Britain in 1100 AD.
When an organism is 'protected' by humans over a long period of time,
Evolutionary parameters fall away because coloration is irrelevant to survival.
The domestication of wolves to dogs is another example--
Reduction of dentition and snout, floppy ears,
And a curled tail manifest themselves.
The Russian experimentation of foxes revealed the same phenomena.

Humans became 'domesticated' with the advent of cooking.
A large heavy jaw with large teeth has now manifested into a finer jaw
And smaller teeth, with some, the molars, becoming obsolete!
Many of us have crowded teeth--tooth size is changing
Slower than a diminishing jaw!
From ingesting grasses and leaves to tearing apart raw meat,
To masticating cooked food--we are the only animal which does so.
It is interesting that all other primates, when given the choice,
Prefer cooked food--it is just that the brainpower is not there
To associate cooking and the need for fire!

Were Our Teeth Always in Our Mouths? opus 399

As humans evolved, the diet changed from grass and leaves,
To the discovery of raw meat, and finally fire and cooking.
The once adaptive large teeth have not kept up in their reduction
With the evolving smaller jaw--
And thus present-day crowding and molar extractions!
But from where did our teeth today evolve?
Two thoughts on the subject--odontodes--
Tooth-like structures found in the throat of Hagfish
Or the odontode structures on the rough skin of sharks!
Whichever finally proves to be correct,
The present-day teeth in our mouths
In the wonderful smile we see today
could never have been foreseen in their original state.

Who's Got Milk? opus 422

We humans are mammals--homeotherms (warm blooded),
Hair, and mammary glands, producing milk for offspring.
The milk in mammals is for strong, early growth.
No mammal consumes milk as an adult--
Oh, except some adult Homo sapiens!
Humans, as always, attempt to 'outwit' the system.
Northern Europeans, especially,
'Discovered' milk as an additional food source.
The problem was adult lactose intolerance--
By attempting the imbibition of milk,
Many became very ill or actually died!
Those who remained, were the progenitors of our dairy industry today!
Ah, once again, Nature, through evolution and its natural selection,
Has manifested its strange outcomes,
Which baffle the uneducated and ignorant non-thinkers.

To No One opus 434

In my youth you taught me your strong ways.
I was tolerant and interested and did not repel you.
You made it clear when showing me your dishware--
If I were to come and share repast,
I would be forbidden to use that dishware.
That was my introduction to your eating laws.

Later and older, I was talking with a female teen,
Who was plain to view, but nicely intelligent.
Her mother entered and cleared out all but me
And announced that my ancestors had destroyed Jerusalem
And I was never to become close to her daughter.
I was shocked, but innocently agreed with what, I was not certain.

Attempting dating, I was snubbed once by other parents
When I arrived to pick up their daughter for a dance.
At my fiftieth reunion I heard the same story from a fellow male student.

(I donated my hand carved stone for the new high school building!)

Much later in my seventies I returned from far away
To the general territory and people with whom I grew up.
I was kindly invited to the home of a now fellow elder.
They kept the laws to which I was introduced so long ago.
When we took repast, I found I was eating off a paper plate!
This to me was another blow going way back to that girl's mother.

Now I watch and have watched since 1948,
The constant battles and the taking of territory
With that reinvasion, 2000 years later.
Yes, there have been great injustices,
But is all this worth it to either side and to their innocent children
Who know nothing of this history and are just taught to suffer and hate?
Guilt is very powerful and sometimes can be misled
To an erroneous and painful conclusion.

A Good Intention, Drowns Some Hopes opus 435

I taught Biology at the University of Lesotho, Africa,
For several years.
While there, I befriended a Swiss fish farmer,
Who in all innocence created a large fish pond,
By damming up a donga or deep crevasse,
Formed from excessive erosion.
The countryside was riddled with these long, deep wastelands.
The intention of my Swiss friend was to create
An aquaculture industry for the country.
In this case good intentions ended in disaster.
One of the challenges was to teach a landlocked nation to eat fish,
But that was not the route of these troubles.

One late morning an alarmed villager quickly knocked
On the doors of our campus.
Three teenagers had slipped down the steep,
Muddy banks of the new pond,
Struggled into ever-deeper water, and had drowned--all three!
What to do? Villagers had been digging away for hours at the dam.
Their intention was only to lower the water and retrieve the bodies.
It would take days. No one wished to, nor was really able,
To swim and recover bodies in the muddy water.
Suddenly (and long before I became an aquaculturist),
It hit me, there must be seines nearby which were used for fish harvesting.
One long one was immediately employed and our 'fishing' commenced.
Soon, sadly, the net was drawn onto the bank,
And three young bodies were seen in this netted tangle.
Their arms were frozen in a painful, as if reaching-for-air position,
Their fingers and ears had been badly nibbled, feeding the innocent fish.
The whole operation had been sickening with a terrible tinge of tragedy.
The campus rescue teachers quietly returned home.

Coincidentally, the University had an outdoor swimming pool
For teachers and their guests. The school was far from a town or city,
And perhaps the designers of the campus felt
The pool would help entertain foreign, urban staff.
So, then, teachers, being teachers, invited students to learn to swim.
However, also at that time, a native Mosotho
Was chosen as the new Vice Chancellor.
The VC, perhaps in a surge of nationalism (?), closed down the pool.
He viewed it as a western, useless pastime.
This action took place just after the staff volunteered
To recover the bodies of those drowned teens.
True, nets were used to retrieve the victims,
And no swimming actually occurred,
But if those three were able to swim--an unknown skill--
The horror of that day would have been just an hypothesis.
The rightful feeling of the Mosotho concerning foreigners
Taking only seeming pleasure in the pool--
Opposed to considering the good being done
By innocently teaching swimming--
Draws out the conflicts of one culture benevolently imposed on another.

If the fish industry were successful and many dongas were aqueously filled,
Swimming would have become a natural ability,
As well as adding fish -- a wholesome protein source for the people.

A Leaden History opus 438

Most of us are aware of the silent death and quiet ailments
Due to the Romans' elaborate plumbing systems, using lead pipes
To shift water throughout their civilizations.
They did not know, but lead is one of the most toxic elements in the
Periodic Table--
A great idea, using an easily malleable metal to connect their water labyrinths.
Today, an equivalently brilliant idea using exciting color
To make a spice more attractive for increasing sales,
Has lead (led, no pun) many into a horrible health problem similar to
that of the ancients.

Bangladeshi women and their children in Flint, Michigan, and in NY City,
All had relatively higher levels of lead in their blood,
Causing lead-related health problems and death.
Why, these people from this part of the world?
Much sleuthing and research, but no clues at all.
Finally, a female Californian researcher decided to actually go to Bangladesh--
No lead paint on their tin houses, no lead-painted toys,
No lead in molded pots, no food with direct lead poisoning.
What then?

Wholesalers of turmeric began using (1980's) lead chromate powder
To brighten the color of the yellow spice.
Then later, when floods blackened the turmeric roots,
Even more lead chromate was freely used on the harvest.
This boosted sales of the artificially yellowed product,
But it was literally poisoning the people of Bangladesh--
Who, sadly, were also privately importing this product to the US.
Studies were done; miraculously the Bangladashi government stepped in,
And this poisoning dropped to almost 0%.

Today, more research follows looking at other spices, cosmetics, and
painted toys.
There is much to be done to ferret out this lead terror--
It pervades our societies, utilizing 7 percent of our US gross national product,
With a global cost of $6 trillion, all coping with lead.

Who would have known? What else lies out there undiscovered?

The End of Yet Another Golden Age? opus 440

We humans have lived through a climate golden age.
With our ever greater success in most things,
We increasingly traverse the world,
Slowly carrying viruses and bacteria with us.
With the human population-increase throughout the planet,
There accompanies an increase
In ever-more confined protein sources to feed us:
Feedlots for cattle, tiny coops for multiple chickens--
Our gallinaceous protein source--,
Ever-more fish farms, confining magnificent salmon.
These confined populations,
Ranging from humans, to our 'fellow-food creatures'.
Exasperates the increased possibilities of transmissionable disease:
Look at bird flu just now in our dairy cattle herds--
Milk still drinkable, yet affecting the caretakers.
Henry Ford's production line increased efficiency,
But that crowding was with the joining of metal and fabrics--
Crowding life with ever-more 'food producers' is not the same.
Some of the oldest forms of life--bacteria and virus--
Are constantly mutating, waiting for a new source of life-support.
(Remember, virus are part of our ancestry and DNA!)

This is the wonder and power of evolution through natural selection--
The thing called life, maintaining a hold on life,
In an ever-changing environment requiring constant adaptation.

The Aurochs Permeates Everywhere opus 470

Aurochs fossils in Europe date back 650,00 years ago.
Thus, they then adorned the art on many a cave wall.
They were the creature declared by Caesar to be like an elephant--
An exaggeration but demonstrating that this was a dangerous beast.
Only a few were captured and tamed
To become the forerunners of our modern cattle.
As a result of early captive herds mating with wild aurochs bulls,
Four separate preglacial aurochs' ancestries
Are included in today's domestic cattle.
Aurochs of southwestern Asia were domesticated
In the Fertile Crescent north, 10,000 years ago, to 'create' the first cattle--
There appears that three distinct aurochs populations occurred in Europe.
This yielded great diversity in the wild forms of this animal.

Just be aware when snarfing your McDonalds hamburger,
That you are masticating the genetic remnants of an ancient noble beast.

Scotexican Food Mix Proposal! opus 479

I was experimenting several ways
To combine Haggis with various vegetables.
One morning, just after Thanksgiving,
I combined cubes of turnips with the Scottish meat dish--
Juxtaposed and completely combined as a one food entity.
This, of course, was not very revolutionary.

Jessie, my Mexican-American wonderful farm helper,
Arrived for work that day, so I tried the combination on him.
We chatted about various other Mexican combinations using Haggis
With, say, okra, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions,
And even avocado and pineapple with potatoes
To create a blend of the Scottish meat mix
With a very Mexican vegetable cuisine--
And Eureka! We invented the newly branded 'Scotexican' food fare!

A Thanksgiving Tidbit opus 486

For more than thirty years my little 37 acre farm
Has raised many poultry, including literally thousands of turkeys--
About 600 per year, totalling around 18,000 birds.
The first year or so we, of course, had to work out the 'bugs'.
In December, after Thanksgiving had been celebrated,
I had a few calls, giving me feedback concerning our birds.
In general, the reports were excellent--wonderful taste.
All our birds were ground raised, with mainly healthy grazing.
The one issue, if there really were one, was dry breast white meat.
That was an unexpected report from several customers.
Now I needed to figure out just what created this phenomenon.
The birds were raised quite perfectly to my mind.
I concluded that the 'problem' was not caused by our husbandry.
So, what on earth could yield this observation?
After some thought, I homed in on cooking methods.
With our birds being ground raised, the lack of huge amounts of fatteners
Created a delicious bird that was leaner than commercial turkeys.
Turkeys are most traditionally roasted with the breast up;
This method is convenient because on its back, the body sits stably in the pan.
Giving directions concerning a breast-down orientation resulted in a
perfect product;
All the breast meat was bathed in body juices during the whole cooking time.
In addition, we created a guide with weight and time rules,
Keeping in mind that a lean bird must be cooked slower and longer,
With a reduced temperature to retain more juices.
After two or three years, there were nothing but continual raves.

A Catastrophe Causes Ants to Change Their Diet opus 487

When we imagine ants seeking food, we probably think first of sugar or crumbs.
But because of a catastrophe on the earth which occurred 66 million years ago,
Not only did dinosaurs disappear, but ants also were affected.
Large creatures on the earth's surface were incinerated away,
While smaller, fossorial creatures were often spared.
Of course I am talking about the crash of the meteor into our earth.
It greatly changed things on terrestrial earth, but also in the seas.
The survival of small fossorial mammals gave rise to creatures like us!
There are many stories to be told, but I shall focus on ants right now.
Most food sources for ants, including plants were burned to a crisp--
This major food for ants was, indeed, plants--so what to do?
Interestingly, masses of dead plant material became a major food for fungi
Hungry ants jumped right in and evolved to collect and eat fungus.
Thus today we behold our harvester ants common in many places.
So, a catastrophe and death knell for a major group of animals,
Created, through adaptation, a new food source for another.
The evolution of tenacious life on our planet
Continually strives to maintain the flow of protoplasm
At all costs and beyond the capacity of 'normal' thought.

How to be Bailed Out with Half a Turkey opus 489

As I have said before, I raised ground-raised turkeys for three decades.
I always ordered my day-old poults through the mail.
(I believe Benjamin Franklin started this system to aid beginning farmers.)
One year I received my batch of 600 poults and started yet another year.
Part way through the season, the young birds seemed unusually large,
And indeed, by autumn, they were double the normal size.
I had inadvertently received some sort of super breed!
What on earth to do--much too large for most of my customers.
So, as usual, I fresh froze them but cut and wrapped
The exceptionally large ones in half!
Then I explained to each customer what had occurred
And 'sold them' on how unique a half turkey would appear,
Lying on a silver platter at the Thanksgiving repast!
It worked and I sold every one--and I was VERY thankful
There were no complaints, but I made certain with the breeder,
That would never happen again!

A Haggis Repast opus 507

I dozed off to the pending news of our redundant politicians;
Such continual anger against almost everything.

I longed for a change-- something to put in my mouth.
Oh, the last portion of my can of Scottish Haggis.
Chopped into smaller portions, special oil poured thereupon.
Heated to soften the Haggis and yield a bubbling oil.
One of my last four eggs, held for a special occasion--
Eggs--the last--from my young hens--
Dog-murdered beside my house.
Now almost imbibing the heated oil-soaked meat,
I left it on my tongue to taste my Scottish heritage--
Washed down gently with not Scotch, but Sake--
A cosmopolitan repast at midnight.

Overcoming the Impossible opus 528

I had a terrible fish allergy when I was young.
I rolled on the floor, gasping for breath, and no one understood why.
Ahh, finally it was figured out that I had a severe fish allergy.
I went weekly to Dr. Clifford to have weekly injections
And then bits of fish, from those I had caught in our local Crystal Lake.
It didn't work, so months of immunization went down the tubes.
At camp I washed dishes to earn a scholarship;
Fridays were lethal when I wiped the sweat off my head,
And the fish oil in the sink's sudzy water would get into my mouth.
I persevered, hating this allergy, trying tastes of fish defiantly.
Finally at 50 years, my biology changed and I could taste fish carefully.
One day I went into a fish market and asked how this and that tasted.
The fishmonger was perplexed, until I explained about my past allergy.
At last I was free. I had persevered and had beat my biology.
Last night I cooked up a lovely piece of flavored Cod.
In past times, that would have been like Socrates imbibing the hemlock.
My biology did help, but my insistence got me over the goal.
Perhaps that is why the 'impossible' projects I have tackled,
Many times were successful, because I had learned not to give up.

Our Attraction to Flowers opus 536

Why is it that flowers are so important for humans?
The desire to have flowers in our lives
For ceremonies--both secular and religious--, love gifts,
Or simply because one wishes to gift something
To another for no reason at all!
To think this through, what stage in a plant's life
Comes following the beautiful, scentful floral sequence?
Well, korms, bulbs, nuts, fruits are the most usual result.
An hypothesis put forward is very logical--
If the genome of a human programs memory
Where it sees flowers and takes note of their location,
The human will return to that spot later,
When the edible harvest has developed.
This behavioral trait may have been innate for survival,
As much as our 'natural' fear of snakes
May also be beneficial for survival.

Marrow opus 558

As a child, I often chewed on a chicken bone to remove the marrow.
I was not aware at the time, but I was following
The masticating practices of the Neanderthals
(And those of my own early species).
There is ample evidence that the many smashed bones
Of both animal and, in certain localities, of Neanderthal,
Were a desired part of the consumption of the bodies.
Marrow has a distinct texture and taste
And was, then, specially desired nutritionally
And perhaps sometimes ritualistically.
Learning this now, gives me a closer feeling for and understanding
Of my very unique hominin ancestry
And, unknowingly, as a child I uninstructedly and instinctively,
Mimicked my very ancient forebears in one of their regular practices.

Sounds for a Birder opus 562

The Neanderthal are gone by 40,000 years,
But there is still a link between us Moderns and the extinct ones--
The vocalizations of most of the birds we live with today.
As a population, the Neanderthal would have been far more aware
Of the varied, juxtaposed calls of their avian neighbors
Than Modern Homo would be in our present time.
These creatures were their alarm clock at sunrise,
Their lullaby in the Demerung (Twilight) as they attempted to sleep,
And their warning, denoting some occurrence
Of which they should be aware.
Birds were their constant companions, as well as their nourishment.
An intimate relationship with another creature for sure!

Diminution of Codfish in Our Food Chain opus 607

Evolution? Humans actually causing evolution?
Nonsense!
Well, here's one for you, oh you doubters.
Codfish have been pursued and netted for centuries,
Capturing these one-meter-long beauties.
As time proceeded, those smaller adults escaped the nets.
The human selective pressure was always removing the 'big ones'.
This slowly shifted the selective adaptation to an ever-smaller size.
So, as a result of 'we-clever-humans',
With our superior technology and frequency of use therewith,
We have literally destroyed a prize and sought-for prey,
To an unwanted and undesired minimal size,
Because of the unheeding and ignorant knowledge of adaptation,
Through evolution and the process of natural selection.

Codfish Are Becoming Greatly Reduced in Size. An Additional Thought opus 617

Is it possible for humans to 'cause' an evolutionary process?
Nonsense! Impossible! But wait.
Three foot Eastern Baltic Codfish have been harvested for centuries.
But in the last few decades, reduced size of fish have been continually reported.
In 1996 their size was 3 feet; in 2019, half that size; now one fits in two hands.
Is this due to climate change or to fishing activity?
Using larger nets, the smaller fish escaped easily; an advantage being small.
After a fishing ban in 2019, the genetics of the fish maintained their small size.
Upon examining otoliths (from the inner ear) collected between 1996 and 2019,
They demonstrated that the growth rings showed slower size increase.
In addition, the DNA corroborated that same conclusion.
Ever-smaller parent fish are generating ever-smaller offspring.
This indicates that the cods' evolution is pressured externally.
The scientists conclude that this evolutionary process is driven by human activity.
They conclude that, "This is scientifically fascinating, but ecologically deeply concerning."

A Story of the American Bullfrog opus 618

American Bullfrogs (Lithobates catesbeianus, used to be Rana sp.)
Were introduced into California in the late 1800's (1896?).
The main thrust was to form a basis for a new food industry!
In addition, thoughts featured the pet industry and recreational purposes.
During the Gold Rush, miners ate up to 80,000 Red-legged frogs (Rana draytonii) a year.
This nearly wiped out that native population of frog,
Thus, the concept for a new food industry in the State.
But hungry miners are not a model to be used for a less hungry general population.
Frog legs were commonly consumed pre-1900 and thousands of pounds
Were even annually harvested and exported throughout the US.
When the demand for frog meat was not realized,
The captive frogs were released into the wild, causing ecological havoc,
By disrupting the delicate balance of California's ecosystems.
Female Bullfrogs lay clutches of up to 20,000 eggs, twice a year.
These frogs consume a wide range of prey, including
Aquatic eggs, insects, fish, birds (including young ducklings) and small mammals,
Some of which are native species, already threatened or endangered.
Bullfrogs are carriers of chytridiomycosis which has devastated amphibians worldwide.
Their presence has led to changes in nutrient cycling and water quality.
Bullfrogs are so adaptable, that it is difficult to manage control.
Just the cost to the State attempting control has been very expensive.
On a positive note, these frogs are now used in research,
Studying developmental biology, physiology, and ecology.
When introducing a non-native species of any kind, one must always be aware
Of the unintended consequences which may result.

(Note: I first looked into this introduced species,
Suspecting that the Calaveras Frog Jumping Contest
May have been the source for this introduction,
But the Contest was just part of the whole phenomenon.)

The Six Ring Benzine Menace opus 647

The US intake of sugar is directly proportional to temperature.
When temperature rises, sugar intake increases.
Most of this sugar intake is through soft drinks.
By the end of the century, it is estimated that yearly 
Per capita intake will be at least a one pound increase.
Soft drink companies now calculate production
By following temperature rise from weather predictions.
Climate change is already causing
The deterioration of human health vis a vis sugar.
Will obesity start culling the very numbers of the human population?
The driving of our gas guzzlers may in the end be our absolute end.

The Reverent Omnivore opus 735

I eat meat.  I like the taste of meat.
I have also butchered other creatures to eat meat.
So, I am, more than most, deeply involved.
Many arguments one way or the other.
(Humans have omnivorous dentition matching pigs and bears}, 
What could ever be the correct way?
I am now at the level where I contemplate
The pain or agony my food source experiences at harvest.
This helps, but I still like meat, at least in a measured way.
Turning to entomophagy, is my 'pain', less, consuming insects?
Upon purchase, one places the bagged stash in the freezer
To slowly pass into eternity from lack of warmth.
Life, no matter how one philosophizes,
Just plain needs energy to survive--
Vegetables exclusively?  The caveman diet of meat and fat?
Perhaps a solution is the 'Reverent Omnivore' way out.
Have that similar passion you feel, 
Also for the carrot ripped from the earth.
As well as the Kosher-blessed, properly butchered cow,
Bled correctly in the presence of a holyman! 

Defecation opus 750

One contemplates many things, while sitting on the John.
Pigeon pooh on my car; gull droppings on my picnic!
Disgusting, annoying, and just plain unclean.
With life, material must enter a body, willingly or not,
Is utilized and, unused portions must be excreted.
That is the pattern of life-maintenance on earth.
Comparing gull defecation to human waste dumps,
The gulls, though, lose in comparison.
With modern technology, humans 
Rarely contemplate their bodily waste.
Every modern child should really have a field trip,
Not just to a firehouse, but to a sewage processing plant, 
To view another vital profession.
Like the Romans, we today hide life's processes.
A farmer has no qualms about recycling his cow manure
To nurture his fields, spreading it from his 'honey wagon'.
('Honey wagon' was the term my New York grandfather used.
For the device that spread manure over his fields.)