Song to Onions

Judith Huth
Because sometimes you need a poem like this, to run through your head, then read aloud, and then chuckle at.  Aaaand now I'm hungry.


Song to Onions by Roy Blount Jr.

They improve everything, pork chops to soup,
And not only that but each onion's a group.

Peel back the skin, delve into tissue
And see how an onion has been blessed with issue.

Every layer produces an ovum:
You think you've got three then you find you've got fovum.

Onion on on—
Ion on onion they run,
Each but the smallest one some onion's mother:
An onion comprises a half-dozen other.

In sum then an onion you could say is less
Than the sum of its parts.
But then I like things that more are than profess—
In food and the arts.

Things pungent, not tony.
I'll take Damon Runyon
Over Antonioni—
Who if an i wanders becomes Anti-onion.
I'm anti-baloney.

Although a baloney sandwich would
Right now, with onions, be right good.

And so would sliced onions,
Chewed with cheese,
Or onions chopped and sprinkled
Over black-eyed peas:

Black-eyed,
grey-gravied,
absorbent of essences,
eaten on New Year's Eve
peas.


Comments

  1. I never thought that onions could be the subject of something to poetic!

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  2. lol this made me laugh, if I can get the Mr to chop the onions I do, I hate it!!

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  3. ha, brilliant :)

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  4. Haha omgosh this is amazing! I can't be in a world
    with no onions :')
    Love this part: "Peel back the skin, delve into tissue
    And see how an onion has been blessed with issue."

    Xx

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  5. Blount...I think he played cornerback with the Raiders. Had no idea he could be clever. :)

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  6. 'You think you've got three then you find you've got fovum' . . . Ha! That was awesome . . .

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  7. All I can think about is that scene from Shrek when he says he has layers. Onions have layers, ogres have layers. And then Donkey says cakes have layers. Now I'm not only hungry, but I want to watch Shrek. xo

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  8. i love onion references. even when shrek said he was like an onion :) happy friday!

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  9. "You think you've got three then you find you've got fovum" = genius

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  10. ha, this is funny. i have never heard this one before. and i agree with erin, it reminded me of shrek too, and now i am having a hankering to watch it. xo

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  11. Definitely lots of giggles right here. I add onions to everythinggggg, can't live without them. Seriously.

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  12. This made me laugh but I have to say that I hate onions! I never ever eat them! :)

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  13. This just gave me the biggest smile on my face! And I love the painting too! :)

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  14. Love this, perhaps the artist and the poet were inspired by their muse while chopping onions (my dreaded part of cooking).

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  15. Only because onions are the best and this is amazing! I think I may make an onion soup tomorrow :)

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  16. Haha - I love onions of all kinds so this is perfect! :-)

    http://tinajoathome.com/

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