Plenus by Colette Tennant

I don’t want to see body parts on my food –
no eyes staring blankly at the meringue ceiling,
no tail missing its slow sway through salty water,
no fins, directionless and still.

No feet please,
and no feather remnants or
quills singed and sky-less.

Even pigs, bless them,
no snouts or curly tails tucked in plastic
in the 70s Winn Dixie meat counter,
no pig feet pickled away
from the soft squish of earth,

no concrete reminders
of how much hunger costs.

Colette Tennant’s first book of poems Commotion of Wings was published in 2010. Her poems have appeared in Natural Bridge, Southern Poetry Review, Dos Passos Review, and others.

One of her poems is currently nominated for a Pushcart Prize.