Tonight's Poet Corner: Cooking The Books
Cooking The Books by Belinda Roddie Listen: I've got an appetite that just won't quit me. I'm deliberately tracking my steps to the bookstore and back with a new novel pressed against the nape of my neck. My blood sugar's low, and the polyphagia bites into my gut like a steel-jawed trap making meat out of my lower intestines. It ties my soul up in knots, and with every word and silly phrase, I want to gobble up every page, taste the ink, and swallow the pulp, hiccuping as I force myself to digest it: I am hungry, and I need to read. I need the truth stamped on everybody's crackling spine so when I open them up, they don't have a single secret that I can't find. I'll inject poetry like insulin, stave off the textual diabetes with a paper and pen. If I can't eat enough of others' stories, I'll serve up my own cuisine to keep my brain plump rather than mean and lean. Listen: If you've got a tale to regale me with,