What We Need

July 18, 2008

rice, 10 lbs.
cheese
valentina hot sauce, large bottle
tomatoes
jalapeños, screw what the government says
cilantro, they were wrong about tomatoes and weapons of mass destruction
squirt
tortillas
spinach
soy sauce
what else?
???

(for Emily Dickinson)

Posted by Ned
Filed in poetry

13 Responses to “What We Need”

  1. Roger Mugs Says:
    July 19, 2008 at 8:55 pm

    i dont think mrs. emily
    would much appreciate
    tortialls or soy sauce
    these things she would hate

  2. Tucker Collins Says:
    July 20, 2008 at 6:15 pm

    she lived in solitary
    she wouldn?t need 10 lb of rice

  3. Ned Says:
    July 20, 2008 at 10:31 pm

    Maybe she wouldn’t like or need those things, but I do. Apparently she used to write poems on the backs of grocery lists, and I recall some debate about a particular fragment that was either a grocery list or a poem, depending on one’s point of view, so the point of “What We Need” is that, besides the fact that I needed Squirt and cheese, I also needed tomatoes, cilantro, and some other things.

    (Author’s note: verisimilitude is here lacking; I always include at least one phony item on a grocery list, such as dynamite, and I would never jot down three question marks. That would be redundant.)

  4. Roger Mugs Says:
    July 21, 2008 at 1:49 am

    ned, think not that my poor education kept me from knowing the reason for the reference… my distaste for emily has not kept me ignorant of her most infamous works…
    that said, dynamite would have been a nice addition and only one question mark would have been a nice subtraction….

    but alas our works are so beautiful as they are… and if julio would ever get around to buying his whole class copies of our poetry and teaching it, well then we’d really have something, and NEVER again would we talk so in depth of our writing (as others would do it for us)

  5. Tucker Collins Says:
    July 21, 2008 at 7:11 am

    why cant they use the website
    its free

  6. Ned Says:
    July 21, 2008 at 10:18 am

    Apologies.

  7. Roger Mugs Says:
    July 23, 2008 at 3:55 am

    because the website doesn’t earn us 20 cents per copy…

  8. Roger Mugs Says:
    July 23, 2008 at 3:55 am

    also we look more professional in print.

  9. Tucker Collins Says:
    July 23, 2008 at 7:55 am

    ok
    thats a good answer

  10. Tucker Collins Says:
    July 23, 2008 at 8:02 am

    i wouldn’t know about the professional part because I don’t own a copy of the book

  11. Julio Chapluzki Says:
    July 23, 2008 at 1:15 pm

    If only I had gotten my whole class to buy copies. We could have made about eight dollars, at least! But I would have to keep them from ever finding the site, or else I would get horrible end of semester evaluations.

  12. Julio Chapluzki Says:
    July 23, 2008 at 1:16 pm

    Interestingly enough, instead I assigned the Waste Land for their literary analysis and that is going awesome (if awesome really means not awesome at all).

  13. Roger Mugs Says:
    July 24, 2008 at 1:44 am

    how would they ever know? the book says what the site is…
    but how could they know you are the great julio chap?

    alas your fears are unfounded!
    hows the new home by the way?

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