I’m Coming for you Bob...
To Hull & Back...
to Carver’s Just for the Mushy Peas!

As a little lad, I think on a Sat’day morning, we’d go

to a market somewhere, was it on the docks?

Asked our Brian, he’s smart, he said it were... I thought - he’d know.

...After all the mooching, the tugging, the shushing, the rows
and all me mam’s “where’s he gone nows?”

If I stuck it out long enough wi’out gerrin’ a clout,
we’d sit inside, or sometimes out,

of a blue striped tent - and I’d eat mushy peas.

There might have been chips,
 there could have been fish;
Mam always had fish,

Brian, would have had a pattie... well, he was 12(ish)

Not sure I’d even have known about patties all them years back.
But anyway peas is what sticks in my mind…

and all down the front of me jumper...or sometimes on me mac.

They say - if you haven’t been to Carver’s
 you haven’t been to Hull.

Well Bob... I’m coming back!… And’ll
bet,
when I was digging mushy peas
 with my fork back in Fifty Three,

it were your Grandad, (also Bob) would have been serving me!

Cheers! And, I know it's cheeky - but - Can I have scraps wi'that?

I guess I was amassing a collection
So I could show my children all the places I’ve ate

Like little milestones

All the places I’ve had dead end dates

All the places I’ve gorged myself
Having just got off work
Or just smoked a bowl
Either way I felt deserving of a feast

All the places I shared stories with friends
All the places we shared kisses before we went in

All the orange chicken I ate to help sober up
All the take out I ordered when we broke up
And that one place I found out I was allergic to shrimp and threw up

Yeah I remember it all
The egg rolls, the soup, the soy sauce
The painting of pandas or dragons
The red lanterns
All the motifs
You seemingly needed to run an establishment
Like this

There are the stand outs
The Lucky Star whose pork fried rice was just cut up Slim Jims
The Panda House who treated me less like a customer and more like a friend
If I didn’t come around, they would call and ask where I had been

It didn’t matter if it was in a mall or in my small home town
I always found comfort in this other culture’s food
So while I’m waiting for all those fountain cookies to come true
I guess I’ll look back over these dozen Chinese menus

Pregnant Penelope placed
pealed pears in pairs in a
path which pickled preacher
Percy just previously pondered.

Pealing downstreet in a Plymouth,
he placed the gear down and
pushed the peddle purposefully
upon patent plush carpeting

PLOW!!

Poor pealed pears pushed
plumb with the pavement,
they promptly exploded..

Oh Please ! Pause !!!
Plllhhheewfff,
puke...

preposterous poetry should
be punished promptly with
proper penalty,

BUT

regretfully someone
will plagiarized such
pompous penning

Alas, THEY shall be known
for the **** they pass
in some preferred
publication,

which —personally— would
please the p*** out of me...

"intentionally poor ****"
© 2007-2020 by Seranaea Jones
all rights reserved

Musa had a big farm,
On it he grew corn,peas and palm.
One day,Musa was sick,
So he sent his son Jalil to the market to buy seeds,
Jalil  returned with a handful of magic seeds,
In return for a sack full of peas.
Musa was furious,
But also curious,
He sowed the seeds in the corner of his farm,
Where to his crops it would do noharm.
The peas started to grow underground,
Down and down the stalk wound.
Musa and Jalil went down the stalk,
Soon they reached a cave block,
Gold glittered on the cave rock,
And strewn on its floor was unimaginable treasure.
Musa's eyes gleaned with pleasure,
He felt Jalil tug at his sleeves,
He saw a giant snake guarding the treasure with some huge mice.
The snake spoke,"Musa and Jalil,since you sowed the seeds,
You can take a sack ful of gold and precious beads."
The magic seeds made them rich.
The next day...........

Minty green and mean,
Mushy pea clean.
Add to the plate,
Of your best mate.
Mushy peas and chips,
Raised to the lips.
Believe me when I say,
A sensation so intense,
Will leave you, in suspense.
Mushy peas
Minty green, yet supreme.

    ©  Nick Strong 2014

Shucking peas on the back steps
Maureen and I watch her Mum,
My Aunt Grace,
Arguing with Aunt Edna
In the kitchen
The narrow kitchen
Of number 84 Truro Road
As they whip a Sunday lunch into shape
A test match drones on the radio
The aroma of mint on new spuds teases.
It’s a modest roast
Served in the tiny parlor
To nine of us!
Eating elbow to elbow
With yellow handled knives and forks
Down to the bare porcelain
Waiting for the apple pie
with Libby’s.
That crust, with sugar sprinkles
Is a lifetime goal for me!