I read a poem last November, when the world was wrapped in mono gray. It was the climax of MyTake: A Story to Nurture in Five Food Groups.
As nature squeaks into color, life, and growth, this protean poem unfurls tightly packed stanzas into the broad notes of spring.
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One thing broke me;
two built me back.
Fall in FScN 4612, Human Nutrition,
each lecture softening the edges of my circumscribed truth.
Studies strive for stolid statements,
but humans refuse to cooperate.
We fictionalize what we ate yesterday,
we guess at how often we eat fish,
we tick the same box for grass-fed beef,
for venison,
for McDonald’s Hamburgers.
I crumbled under the weight of peer-reviewed articles,
at odds with each other,
squinting their way to the truth.
Winter, and I watched a dietitian speak with precise passion
of an ecological approach to food and health,
of environmental health and natural resources,
of starting with oneself.
Essential building blocks condensed
into a strand stretching
from a protein machine, bending and twisting
into a tertiary structure,
The Food System.
Summer, and I was swept along on a sustainability safari:
landing in locations
from labels off co-op shelves,
scuffling with scripts
from scholars and scientists,
facing furrowed facts
from farmers and foragers.
I transcribed novelty into neurons,
I put my hands into the blackness and pulled.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What is protein?
Amino acids line up according to ancient instructions, attract and repel each other, furl into microscopic protein machines, group and grow to make this protein machine, complex and communal.
What is protein?
Amino acids line up according to ancient instructions, attract and repel each other, furl into microscopic protein machines, group and grow to make this protein machine, complex and communal.
