Thirteen Ways of Looking at a French Fry Potato
I
Among fifty fast-food restaurants
the only touching thing was
a bag of fries.
II
Yo,
french fry potato.
The skinny is
you got no skin.
III
Add salt, ketchup,
melted cheese,
their essential function
is to please.
IV
French fries kill
more people than
guns and sharks,
but no one's afraid
of french fries.
V
When I met you
at McDonald's
I thought you were
an über tuber; fashionably
thin yet filled with fat.
VI
The French call it
a pomme frite,
c'est magnifique,
je ne sais quoi,
bon appétit.
VII
Do french fries really come
from France? Non non ma chère,
ils viennent de Belgique.
VIII
They say you're a "fast" food
but there are worse sins
than "going all the way"
at lunch or dinner.
IX
Oiled in and oiled up,
greased with goodness,
greased with greatness,
cholesterol killing
but Barkis is willing.
X
How 'bout we go to
the couch, potato,
or do you want to
go somewhere else.
XI
A man and a woman
are one.
A man and a woman and a french fry
are one.
XII
You may look like
a small fry
but taste wise
you're the big potato.
XIII
It was morning all afternoon.
It was raining
and it was going to snow.
The french fry sat
in a plastic tub.
by Martin H. Levinson
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Martin H. Levinson does not teach creative writing at Stanford. In 2017, he was not awarded a fellowship from the NEA. His poetry has not been published by The New Yorker or the Paris Review. Levinson lives with his wife in New York City. He is grateful for the recognition he has not sought or achieved and plans to continue to work in obscurity.