Cooking

Poem 994 – Tonight’s Curry

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I only put two teaspoons in,
A touch, a taste, no more,
And yet it blew our eye balls out,
They rolled along the floor.

The steam began to freely stream,
Out of our reddening ears,
Our hair stood up, alert and straight,
Our cheeks flowed with our tears.

A silent scream began to grow,
In brewing, roaring strength,
And from our mouths fierce anger poured,
A flaming dragon’s breath.

The mounting pressure grew and grew,
Alarms began to sound,
The panic overwhelming, shrill,
Causing our heads to pound

Until at last in desperation,
We ran to find the sink,
And wrapped our mouths around the taps,
And started to urgently drink!

I may have over estimated the amount of curry sauce required…
(05.09.26)

© Ben Quant 2026
Photo by LOLA AZIZADA on Unsplash

Poem 174 – Fusion Cooking

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Ingredients:
blend together
two unrelated
cuisines or musical
languages

Outcome:
a fusion dish
of novel taste
an auditory
revelation

Ingredients:
two particles
accelerated
at speed into
a forced collision

Outcome:
explosive wave
of energy
reveals sub-
atomic secrets

Ingredients:
grab unrelated
ideas and hurl
together hard
to see what happens

Outcome:
metaphorical
generation
conceives surprising
ideas and insights

Ingredients:
a man, a woman
heat up their hormones
stir DNA
and leave to sit

Outcome:
new life erupts
through pain and joy
familiar yet
distinctly different

But still…
we build
our walls
close down
the channels
shut down
surprise
take cover
behind
our slogans
fearful
of what
might be
and be
discovered

This started life as a poem about poems and metaphors for World Poetry Day, but finished up as something quite different as I combined not just this and other interests of mine whilst reflecting on a local hotel housing asylum seekers.
(23.03.23)

© Ben Quant 2023
Photo by John Legrand on Unsplash

Poem 63 – The Master Chefs

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We traded favourite flavours
And swapped celebrity chefs
Compared inherited recipes
Until we had full sets
One trusted only Berry
Another Delia Smith
Some bish-bash-boshed with Jamie
But I like Nadiya best

A quick doodle today after over heating a conversation at foodbank about cookery.
(31.12.21)

© Ben Quant 2021

Poem 39 – Baked Apples

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Two lopsided apples freshly plucked from
The branches of our garden tree hanging
Within easy reach scrubbed clean and
Checked all over for signs of wildlife

Circumference scored with small knife then
Core carved out its hollow packed with
Dried raisins and dates and sprinkled
With bittersweet cinnamon to season

Placed in an oven hot to swell a
Fruit sauna sweating juices flowing
Until soft throughout then served with
Fresh cream poured perfecting

Baked homegrown apples make a perfect autumn dessert.
(19.11.21)

© Ben Quant 2021