Art: Cyril Larvor, @cyrillarvor
RECIPE FOR A BETTER WORLD
Don’t you know the difference between a potato and a lion?
That’s odd.
They put lions on pajamas but not potatoes. You’ll never see potatoes on your brother’s pajamas.
Lions roar. Lions are not called spuds. Lions are fine and dandy, like petunias or dandelions.
Your mother could make potato and dandelion soup, if she cared to, and you could help.
All you’d need is a dandy lion and an ideal potato.
Potatoes grow on trees. Just tell your favorite farmer you’ll need a bushel this year. He’ll know
what to do. But they’ll be fewer apples if he grows potatoes. You’ll have to think it through.
Of course, some say potatoes don’t grow on trees. Some people get quite angry about this
mistake. My father used to shout, “You’re always forgetting to turn out the lights. Do you think
potatoes grow on trees?”
When I was young, we were poor. Father would turn over the ketchup bottle to catch the very
last drop. My family liked to put ketchup on our potatoes, but not on our lions. Ketchup grows
on trees, too. Put in your order at the start of the year.
But when it comes to lions, I’d be careful. I wouldn’t get too close. Lions are reluctant to swim.
You’re probably thinking of dolphins who can swim very fast. They swim as fast as crows can
fly. But I wouldn’t put ketchup on the crows either. In point of fact, you’d be better off keeping
the ketchup to yourself.
So, where were we? You’ve got the ketchup, the lion, and the potato, not to mention the dolphins
and the lights. What are we forgetting? The crows! And the trees. Don’t forget to turn off the
trees. And the apple sauce. If there is any left.
Now pick the petunias before it is too late. Add them to the soup. Stir. When it comes to the boil,
you’ll have chicken soup. Enjoy. (Serves 4.)
About the artist:
David Lohrey is from Memphis, and now lives in Tokyo. He graduated from UC Berkeley. Internationally, his poetry can be found in Otoliths, Sentinel Quarterly, and Buckshot Magazine. In the US, recent poems have appeared in Abstract Mag TV, FRiGG, Obsidian, and Apogee Journal. His fiction can be read in Crack the Spine, Dodging the Rain, Literally Stories, and The Broke Bohemian. David’s The Other Is Oneself, a study of 20th century literature, was published last year, while his first collection of poetry, Machiavelli’s Backyard, was released in August. He is a member of the Sudden Denouement Collective.
Art: Cyril Larvor, @cyrillarvor. Paris, France.