What To Do With Onions

There is a weird new kind of spam showing up – duplicates of comments already made but from weird various places.  WordPress is doing it’s best to keep them at a minimum but I am also having to go in and delete manually.  Just a heads up to the rest of you bloggers – I don’t think it is just me.

Sunday Scribblings 212 prompt is Dinner and Murat11‘s kiddos are riffing off Vivien Shipley’s “What To Do About Sharks” and Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons and somehow that landed me with this

chop the scallions scamps rapscallions
gallons and gallons
we shop and hop and chop the scallions
scampering in the scandalous stalls of markets
old women baskets and shawls
chop and dice and peel and rice
clean the mess the test of
kitchens smidgeons of pidgeons breasts
stuffed with the scallions
scalded scantily clad and wrapped
in scallions, garlic and sage
and scalded chopped and sliced and diced
for nineteen ninety nine its
yours and knives to cut and fill
your gut but wait there’s
more
just a touch of lemon takes
the smell away the shell
the skin this onion
has many layers

34 thoughts on “What To Do With Onions”

  1. Nara Malone

    This onion does indeed have many layers. I’d like to chop a few rapscallions, but I know too well how it feels to be sliced and diced. I think I’ll make some lemonade instead.

    🙂 I really needed this poem.

    I’ve missed hanging out with the poets lately. Thanks for dropping by the blog while I was away.

    1. Dee Post author

      good to hear from you – I have your ebook newsletter up and ready to read for this afternoon after church. I can see you have been busy!

    1. Dee Post author

      Thank Anthony – it’s such a joy when they come that way – they just seem to sing themselves onto the paper 🙂

  4. Rinkly Rimes

    This weekend I received an email from a friend telling me that, if flu strikes, pieces of cut onion should be placed around the house as onions absorb germs!!!! I wonder!

    1. Dee Post author

      I don’t know about that but I was always told you should eat them raw to help get over a cold. 🙂

  9. Lilibeth

    I like the sound of words…particularly carefully crafted words–matched and whittled and layered ones–like the ones you wrote here. Great poem.

  11. Lilibeth

    Oh, by the way, that was a great story you wrote in your comment about the crawdads. Were you praying that he would have an allergic reaction or was the Lord just extra kind to you?

  12. Kate

    Wonderful–I agree with Carina; it IS like Gerard Manley Hopkins! It’s full of joy even if you are chopping up scamps and rapscallions along with the onions.
    Kate

  13. Dee

    I’m ashamed to say I didn’t know who Gerald Manley Hopkins was – such a nice compliment! I’m reading some of his poetry right now 🙂

  15. old egg

    I loved he way this poem galloped along. It was a;most as though you were trying to get the onion job over quickly before the tears came.

  18. paschal

    This was a mighty romp: scandalous stalls and scantily clad to boot! And channeling GMH, well now . . .

    I love the last 4 lines the mostesest.

    1. Dee Post author

      I now have GMH on my kindle – LOVED this:
      “Hope had grown grey hairs,
      Hope had mourning on,
      Trenched with tears, carved with cares,
      Hope was twelve hours gone”

  19. Old Grizz

    B, M & O in a glass..you are on the same page as my wife. Cut part of an onion in chunks…tear Italian sandwich roll into chunks…put onion and bread in a glass…add milk and eat with a spoon..I don’t think Chef Puck has that one on his menu..sorry about the typos earlier…I need to edit better

    1. Dee Post author

      well I like onions but I’ve never tried them with milk…guess I shouldn’t knock it til I try it 🙂

  20. Jae Rose

    Yes, this definitely had rhythm..It was like music to the ear! Some lovely lines in there..and loved the repetition of sounds -harsh and soft like chopping then cooking..Jae

  21. Archna

    This was really cool. You are so good. And yes, onions wash away many yucky things. I have a onion(purple)and honey recipe that I give to my babies when they are stuck by gems and cold and cough.

    I love that you went from thoughts of chopping, dicing, and slicing to reflecting on the layers. Lovely.

    1. Dee Post author

      thank you for your kind comments. Do your little ones complain about eating onions and honey? When mine were little they would have been having a fit. My oldest still doesn’t like onions. He says it’s the texture 🙂

      1. Archna

        Funny, my oldest has a texture issue as well. The onion/honey mixture doesn’t bother them; the onions are strained after soaking for a while and the tonic is actually a simple honey flavor cough syrup. it’s pretty good!

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